Charlotte Perkins Gilman Quotes - Page 3

A house does not need a wife any more than it needs a husband.

This is the woman's century, the first chance for the mother of the world to rise to her full place . . . and the world waits while she powders her nose.

Said I, in scorn all burning hot,In rage and anger high,"You ignominious idiot,Those wings are made to fly!

Let us inquire what glory there was in an omnipotent being torturing forever a puny little creature who could in no way defend himself? Would it be to the glory of a man to fry ants?

Audiences are always better pleased with a smart retort, some joke or epigram, than with any amount of reasoning.

[Warfare is] maleness in its absurdest extremes. Here is to be studied the whole gamut of basic masculinity, from the initial instinct of combat, through every form of glorious ostentation, with the loudest accompaniment of noise.

The female of genus homo is economically dependent on the male. He is her food supply.

No matter what the belief, if it had modestly said, 'This is our best thought, go on, think farther!' then we could have smoothly outgrown our early errors and long since have developed a religion such as would have kept pace with an advancing world. But we were made to believe and not allowed to think. We were told to obey, rather than to experiment and investigate.

It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.

The peculiarity of all death-based religions is that their subject-matter is entirely outside of facts. Men could think and think, talk and argue, advance, deny, assert, and controversy, and write innumerable books, without being hampered at any time by any fact.

The best proof of man's dissatisfaction with the home is found in his universal absence from it.

It would have saved trouble had I remained Perkins from the first, this changing of women's names is a nuisance we are now happily outgrowing.

If we once admit that our life is here for the purpose of race-improvement, then we question any religion which does not improve the race, or the main force of which evaporates, as it were, directing our best efforts toward the sky.... Improvement in the human race is not accomplished by extracting any number of souls and placing them in heaven, or elsewhere. It must be established on earth, either through achievement in social service, or through better children.

In the field of economics we maintain to this day some of the most primitive ideas, some of the most radically false ideas, some of the most absurd ideas a brain can hold. ... but all this give no uneasiness to the average brain. That long-suffering organ has been trained for more thousands of years than history can uncover to hold in unquestioning patience great blocks of irrelevant idiocy and large active lies.

The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society - more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.

The home is a human institution. All human institutions are open to improvement.

A family unity which is only bound together with a table-cloth is of questionable value.

It is the duty of youth to bring fresh new powers to bear on Social progress. Each generation of young people should be to the world like a vast reserve force to a tired army. They should life the world forward. That is what they are for.

There was a time when Patience ceased to be a virtue. It was long ago.

It is told that Buddha, going out to look on life, was greatly daunted by death. "They all eat one another!" he cried, and called it evil. This process I examined, changed the verb and said, "They all feed one another," and called it good.

A concept is stronger than a fact.

Woman" in the abstract is young, and, we assume, charming. As they get older they pass off the stage, somehow, into private ownership mostly, or out of it altogether.

I ran against a Prejudice that quite cut off the view.

The difference is great between one's outside "life," the things which happen to one, incidents, pains and pleasures, and one's "living."

I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.