Harriet Martineau

it matters infinitely less what we do than what we are.

— Harriet Martineau

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.

— Harriet Martineau

Moral excellence has no regard to classes and professions.

— Harriet Martineau

I loved, as I still love, the most monotonous life possible.

— Harriet Martineau

A soul occupied with great ideas performs small duties.

— Harriet Martineau

influence which is given on the side of money is usually against truth.

— Harriet Martineau

I want to be a free rover on the breezy common of the universe.

— Harriet Martineau

A soul preoccupied with great ideas best performs small duties.

— Harriet Martineau

Marriage ... is still the imperfect institution it must remain while women continue to be ill-educated, passive, and subservient.

— Harriet Martineau

There is no death to those who perfectly love-only disappearance, which in time may be borne.

— Harriet Martineau

Happiness consists in the full employment of our faculties in some pursuit.

— Harriet Martineau

I have no sympathy for those who, under any pressure of circumstances, sacrifice their heart's-love for legal prostitution.

— Harriet Martineau

There is no theory of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of the Universe, which is not utterly…

— Harriet Martineau

I romanced internally about early death till it was too late to die early.

— Harriet Martineau

It is hard to tell which is worse; the wide diffusion of things that are not true, or the suppression of things…

— Harriet Martineau

My own feeling of concern arises from seeing how much moral injury and suffering is created by the superstitions of the Christian…

— Harriet Martineau

I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and…

— Harriet Martineau

The habit of dwelling on the past, has a narrowing as well as a debilitating influence. Behind us, there is a small,…

— Harriet Martineau

What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than that…

— Harriet Martineau

The sick-room becomes the scene of intense convictions; and among these, none, it seems to me, is more distinct and powerful than…

— Harriet Martineau

If the national mind of America be judged of by its legislation, it is of a very high order ... If the…

— Harriet Martineau

School is no place of education for any children whatever till their minds are well put in action. This is the work…

— Harriet Martineau

Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false…

— Harriet Martineau

I would not exchange my freedom from old superstition, if I were to be burned at the stake next month, for all…

— Harriet Martineau

I have suffered, like other writers, from indolence, irresolution, distaste to my work, absence of 'inspiration,' and all that: but I have…

— Harriet Martineau

It is not quite true that there are no good letters written in America: among my own circle of correspondents there, there…

— Harriet Martineau

Everything but truth becomes loathed in a sick-room ... Let the nurse avow that the medicine is nauseous. Let the physician declare…

— Harriet Martineau

Must love be ever treated with profaneness as a mere illusion? or with coarseness as a mere impulse? or with fear as…

— Harriet Martineau

I certainly never believed, more or less, in the "essential doctrines" of Christianity, which represent God as the predestinator of men to…

— Harriet Martineau

Self-denial is taught much better by inspiring the love of our neighbor, than by the prohibition of innocent comforts and pleasures. Spirituality…

— Harriet Martineau

As the astronomer rejoices in new knowledge which compels him to give up the dignity of our globe as the centre, the…

— Harriet Martineau

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring. It is characteristic of genius to break up the artificial arrangements of…

— Harriet Martineau

The imagination, once awakened, must and will work, and ought to work

— Harriet Martineau

Religion is a temper, not a pursuit.

— Harriet Martineau

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

— Harriet Martineau

[On being deaf:] We must struggle for whatever may be had, without encroaching on the comfort of others.

— Harriet Martineau

I never did a right thing or abstained from a wrong one from any consideration of reward or punishment.

— Harriet Martineau

Any one must see at a glance that if men and women marry those whom they do not love, they must love…

— Harriet Martineau

There have been few things in my life which have had a more genial effect on my mind than the possession of…

— Harriet Martineau

I am sure that no traveler seeing things through author spectacles can see them as they are.

— Harriet Martineau