Julia Ward Howe Quotations

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

I never could be good when I was not happy.

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

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.

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

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

The frozen ocean... of Boston life.

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

I was born 'neath a clouded star.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Any religion which sacrifices women to the brutality of men is no religion.

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

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

I want to take the word Christianity back to Christ himself, back to that mighty heart whose pulse seems to throb through the world to-day, 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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 ...

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.

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

Hope died as I was led unto my marriage bed.

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.

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.

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.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal; Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel, Since God is marching on.

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.

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.

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

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.

All the sugar was in the bottom of the cup.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.