Quotes from Julia Ward Howe

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

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.

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

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

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

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

I never could be good when I was not happy.

I was born 'neath a clouded star.

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.

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

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

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

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

The frozen ocean... of Boston life.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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