Top 64 Quotes & Sayings by Julia Ward Howe

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

I take refuge in my books.

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

I was born 'neath a clouded star.

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

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

The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.

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

I never could be good when I was not happy.

Disarm, disarm. The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

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

The frozen ocean... of Boston life.

I want to take the word Christianity back to Christ himself, back to that mighty heart whose pulse seems to throb through the world today, that endless fountain of charity out of which I believe has come all true progress and all civilization that deserves the name. I go back to that great Spirit which contemplated a sacrifice for the whole of humanity. That sacrifice is not one of exclusion, but of an infinite and endless and joyous inclusion. And I thank God for it.

Every fallen woman represents a man as guilty as herself, who escapes human detection, but whose soul lies open before God.

It is not good for beauty that it should be a profession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace.

Familiarity so dulls the edge of perception as to make us least acquainted with things forming part of our daily life.

Any religion which will sacrifice a certain set of human beings for the enjoyment or aggrandizement or advantage of another is no religion. It is a thing which may be allowed, but it is against true religion. Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.

In Virgil's account of the good housewife, who rises early in order to measure out the work of the household, and in Solomon's description of the thrifty woman of his time, one sees the value set upon feminine industry and economy in times far removed from our own.

I have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps, I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps, His Day is marching on.

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

The flag of our stately battles, not struggles of wrath and greed, Its stripes were a holy lesson, its spangles a deathless creed: 'T was red with the blood of freemen and white with the fear of the foe; And the stars that fight in their courses 'gainst tyrants its symbols know.

Charity is an unending self-discipline which always looks and leads towards the eternal affection. Therefore, its triumph shall be lasting and everlasting.

Politeness induces morality. Serenity of manners requires serenity of mind.

All the sugar was in the bottom of the cup.

The broken eggshell of a civilization which time has hatched and devoured.

I think nothing is religion which puts one individual absolutely above others, and surely nothing is religion which puts one sex above another.

I have never known my husband to approve any act of mine which I myself valued.

Don't you think that the best things are already in view?

Hope died as I was led unto my marriage bed.

We, women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

It is always legitimate to wish to rise above one's self, never above others.

Much of the work of every life is done in the dark.

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

Every life has its actual blanks, which the ideal must fill up, or which else remain bare & profitless forever.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me; As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.

When I behold the passion for ornamentation, and the corresponding power, I feel as if women had so far shown what they are bad for, rather than what they are good for.

Every newly discovered truth judges the world, separates the good from the evil, and calls on faithful souls to make sure of their election.

The language of the face is not taught by the schools; it is intuitive, and to the observant is always legible.

As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.

There is no hell like that of a selfish heart, and there is no misfortune so great as that of not being able to make a sacrifice. These two thoughts come to me strongly this morning. It is something to have learned these truths so that we can never again doubt them.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave, He is wisdom to the mighty, he is succour to the brave, So the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of Time his slave, Our God is marching on.

When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by women in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings.

Education keeps the key of life; and liberal education insures the first conditions of freedom,--namely, adequate knowledge and accustomed thought.

The greatest evils of society are goods that have refused to go on, but have sat down on the highway, saying to the world, "We stop here; do you stop also.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn? all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

Life is like a cup of tea, the sugar is all at the bottom!

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord: / He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord -

In the nature of things, I must soon lose sight of this sense of constant metamorphosis whose limits bound our human life.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat. Oh! be swift my soul to answer him, be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on.