C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Julia Ward Howe
Education keeps the key of life; and a liberal education insures the first conditions of freedom, namely, adequate knowledge and accustomed thought.
Every life has its actual blanks, which the ideal must fill up, or which else remain bare and profitless forever.
Every newly discovered truth judges the world, separates the good from the evil, and calls on faithful souls to make sure of their election.
Familiarity so dulls the edge of perception as to make us least acquainted with things forming part of our daily life.
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.
Many a woman will pass for elegant in a ballroom, or even at a court drawing room, whose want of true breeding would become evident in a chosen company.
Politeness induces morality. Serenity of manners requires serenity of mind.
The broken eggshell of a civilization which time has hatched and devoured.
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.”
The language of the face is not taught by the schools; it is intuitive, and to the observant is always legible.
The reason why education is usually so poor among women of fashion is, that it is not needed for the life which they elect to lead.
The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as those of the sword need swiftness.
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.
When I see the elaborate study and ingenuity displayed by woman in the pursuit of trifles, I feel no doubt of their capacity for the most herculean undertakings.