Julia Ward Howe Quotes

"Beneath all differences of doctrine or discipline there exists a fundamental agreement as to the simple, absolute essentials in religion."

"Boston is an oasis in the desert, a place where the larger proportion of people are loving, rational and happy."

"Chev receives a great deal of attention... I do not like that the pretty women should pay him so many compliments... it will turn his little head!"

"Every wave as it dashed upon the shore seemed to tell a tale of days that will return no more."

"For the first time I saw a true picture of the neglected children of the poor-pale and wan, and I saw that among the wretched even childhood is shorn of its beauty."

"From you dear husband, I would have no secrets. You have made me feel that you could not take much interest in my spiritual experience."

"God forgive me if I do wrong in following with ardor the strongest instincts of my nature."

"God will help me! I am so tired!"

"Good ladies make good stewardesses."

"Had I wanted to see something of society, it seemed hardly fair that I should never give myself an opportunity of judging and being judged by it."

"He has been in a very dangerous state, very near insanity, and if I have done my best for him and my children for staying here, you will neither regret nor complain of it."

"Heaven knows what I have not been through with, since I saw you-dust, dirt, dyspepsia, hotels, railroads, prairies, tobacco juice."

"His true devotion has won me from the world and from myself. I am the captive of his bow and spear."

"Hope died as I was led unto my marriage bed."

"How utterly are one's best thoughts invaded by this going out in society."

"I am able to think, to study and to pray, things which I cannot accomplish when my brain is oppressed."

"I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build."

"I am forced to make myself an imaginary public, and to tell it the secrets of my poor little ridiculous brain."

"I am intent mainly upon holding on to the ropes, and upon getting through the present without too much consciousness of it."

"I am sad and spleeny, and begin to have fears that I may not be after all the greatest woman alive."

"I am too lonely, too helpless, too orphaned to be deserted by you, my brother."

"I am trying to translate The Cat and the Fiddle into Greek!"

"I arrived at Green Peace. Two children whom I should not have recognized as mine ran out to meet me."

"I believe I shall live to see women in New York and some of the other states enfranchised, but not in Massachusetts."

"I do not think that I shall ever consider music as a serious occupation instead of a recreation."

"I esteem this century, now at its close, to have deserved a record among those which have been great landmarks in human history."

"I feel much excited, quite unsettled, sometimes a little frantic."

"I find society most uninteresting after that of Rome-my books are now the only things for me."

"I firmly resolved when I married you, to admit no thought, to cultivate no taste, in which you could not sympathize. You must know that my heart has been very loyal."

"I had formerly seen Boston as a petted visitor from another city would be apt to see it. I was now to make acquaintance with the Boston of the teachers, of the reformers, of the cranks, and also-of the apostles."

"I had rather go to a party than stay at home."

"I had rather go to a theater than a party."

"I had rather hear Theodore Parker than go to the theater."

"I have been leading a very lonely and unsympathetic life ever since I came from Newport."

"I have been singing and writing poetry, so you may know that I have been happy, alas, am I not a selfish creature to prize these enjoyments as I do."

"I have just heard the greatest thing I shall ever hear!"

"I hope to get through the winter without any more serious evil than the loss of time, and the ruin of ball dresses."

"I know not why there is such a melancholy feeling attached to the remembrance of past happiness, except that we fear that the future can have nothing so bright as the past."

"I live in a place in which I have few social relations, and all too recent to be intimate."

"I need to be practically reminded that Love is the Religion of Life."

"I never could be good when I was not happy."

"I remember one dinner for which I had relied upon a form of ice as the principal feature of the dessert."

"I rush into your presence with all the madness of a disordered mind-it is your fault, yours."

"I shall stick to my resolution of writing always what I think no matter whom it offends."

"I should like to find out how Joshua contrived to make the sun stand still."

"I sometimes suspect him of having relations with another woman, and regret more bitterly the sacrifice which entailed upon me these months of fatigue and suffering."

"I sometimes think God allows Great Britain to be unprincipled for the good of mankind."

"I take refuge in my books."

"I threw away, once and forever, the thought of the terrible hell which till then had always formed a part of my belief."

"I turned against my New Testament and said, I know you all by heart!"

"I walked on the beach yesterday at sunset. It was beautiful and awakened many pleasing associations of former days."

"I was born 'neath a clouded star."

"I was the first bridesmaid! Pearls, diamonds, silks, satins and laces!"

"It has been strange to me to return to life and to feel that I have any sympathy with human beings, after the long interval of quiet and indifference which succeeded my marriage."

"It is better not to entertain at all, than to entertain badly."

"It was a splendid tribute."

"Life is so short, and friendship so precious!"

"Marriage, like death, is a debt we owe to nature."

"Massachusetts women as a rule adhere too strongly to old-time conventions."

"My book came out on Friday last. The title simply, Passion Flowers, was approved by Longfellow."

"My children are babies and my husband has scarcely half an hour in 24 to give me."

"My husband was himself averse to public appearances."

"My little corner is so green and pretty, so quiet and hidden from all."

"New England spunk seems to be pretty well up."

"One might think that the genius of this age must have uttered a like injunction."

"Seating myself at the piano, I made it ring out the Marseillaise with a will."

"That which I have seen in Rome and even in England leads me to believe that men have strangely mistaken the spirit in their zeal for the letter of Christianity."

"The beaux are all gone, so that we are quite deserted."

"The blind must not only be fed and housed and cared for; they must learn to make thir lives useful to the community."

"The city seems to contain scarce anything but artists, priests and beggars. I have seen the Pope three times, he looked like an old woman dressed up very finely."

"The desolate hush which fell upon our house... silent and cold, in the midst of weeping friends and children."

"The doctor dismounted, and presently came to make our acquaintance. Dr. Howe made upon us an impression of unusual force and reserve."

"The false romance of the time made a tyrant to a childish imagination of the best and kindest of parents."

"The frozen ocean... of Boston life."

"The longer I live, the more do I feel my childlike helplessness about all practical affairs."

"The planed floor was smooth as glass-the music heavenly-the supper superb-we danced till two."

"The Society of Good People is always Good Society."

"The widowed daughter of our host lost heavily by the failure of certain American securities. The tea to which we had been bidden was simply a cup of tea, served without a table."

"Theology in general seems to me a substitution of human ingenuity for divine wisdom."

"These three years of married life have wiped out, as with a sponge, all living memory of the past-I have gone with you to a new world. I will not expect too much from you."

"Uncle John was right about me, when he said I ought not to marry."

"We are fulfilling the destiny of women, we are learning to live for others more than for ourselves."

"We are getting up the Crochet Party, which is to meet once a fortnight for crochet and fun."

"We bore the harassing conversation as long as we could."

"We have acted more wisely than we would have done in marking out any eccentric course of our own and adhering to it."

"We must help our fellow man against the most cruel beast of all, the human tiger."

"When the ship rolled and I felt myself going, I generally made for the stoutest man in sight and pitched into him... little of the old mischief left, you see."

"When the unwelcome little unborn shall have seen the light my brain will be lightened, and I shall have a clearer mind. Thank God that even this weary nine months shall come to an end and leave me in possession of my own body and my own soul."

"While I am employed with frictions my husband is dealing with facts, but as we both seek truth which lies beyond either, we do not get so very far apart as you would think."

"While your life is the true expression of your faith, whom can you fear?"

"Women speakers were few in those days, and were frowned upon by general society."