Quotes from Ellen Swallow Richards

New England is the home of all that is good and noble with all her sternness and uncompromising opinions.

I hope that I am winning a way which others will keep open.

If you keep your feathers well oiled the water of criticism will run off as from a duck's back.

A sense of power is the most intoxicating stimulant a mortal can enjoy.

I prefer surveying for a week to spending a week in fashionable society even of the best class.

Home Economics stands for the ideal home life for today unhampered by the traditions of the past and the utilization of all the resources of modern science to improve home life.

Subject the material world to the higher ends by understanding it in all its relations to daily life and action.

...all enjoyment is dependent upon the frailty of human life and human desires ... if we were to have all we want and to live forever, all enjoyment would be gone.

I had been in the hurrying waters too long not to appreciate an opportunity to lie on the bank and rest, watch others, and gain strength for the coming years.

We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.

It is cruelty to children to keep five-year-olds sitting still, gazing into vacancy even for one hour at a time. We have little idea of the torture we thus inflict.

If it is a relief to take your clothes off at night, be sure that something is wrong. Clothes should not be a burden. They should be a comfort and a protection.

The only trouble here is they won't let us study enough. They are so afraid we shall break down and you know the reputation of the College is at stake, for the question is, can girls get a college degree without ruining their health?

You cannot make women contented with cooking and cleaning and you need not try.

One of the greatest faults of the women of the present time is a silly fear of things, and one object of the education of girls should be to give them knowledge of what things are really dangerous.

Work is a sovereign remedy for all ills, and a man who loves to work will never be unhappy.

I am succeeding quite well in my work and the future looks well. What special mission is God preparing me for? Cutting off all earthly ties and isolating me as it were.

The unwilling mind is not a teachable mind.