Margaret Fuller Quotes - Page 3

I am 'too fiery'... yet I wish to be seen as I am and I would lose all rather than soften away anything.

Harmony exists no less in difference than in likeness, if only the same key-note govern both parts.

The critic ... should be not merely a poet, not merely a philosopher, not merely an observer, but tempered of all three.

I accept the universe!

Beware the mediocrity that threatens middle age, its limitation of thought and interest, its dullness of fancy, its too external life, and mental thinness.

The man of science dissects the statement, verifies the facts, and demonstrates connection even where he cannot its purpose.

Spirits that have once been sincerely united and tended together a sacred flame, never become entirely stranger to one another's life.

The civilized man is a larger mind but a more imperfect nature than the savage.

Plants of great vigor will almost always struggle into blossom, despite impediments. But there should be encouragement, and a free genial atmosphere for those of more timid sort, fair play for each in its own kind.

As to marriage, I think the intercourse of heart and mind may be fully enjoyed without entering into this partnership of daily life.

It should be remarked that, as the principle of liberty is better understood, and more nobly interpreted, a broader protest is made in behalf of women. As men become aware that few have had a fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had a fair chance.

It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to woman is her whole existence; she is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy

Truth is the nursing mother of genius. No man can be absolutely true to himself, eschewing cant, compromise, servile imitation, and complaisance without becoming original.

Would that the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy, might be laid to heart; that a sense of the true aim of life might elevate the tone of politics and trade till public and private honor become identical.

I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.

I find no intellect comparable to my own

Man tells his aspiration in his God; but in his demon he shows his depth of experience.

The critic is beneath the maker, but is his needed friend. The critic is not a base caviler, but the younger brother of genius. Next to invention is the power of interpreting invention; next to beauty the power of appreciating beauty. And of making others appreciate it.

Who can ever be alone for a moment in Italy? Every stone has a voice, every grain of dust seems instinct with spirit from the Past, every step recalls some line, some legend of long-neglected lore.

For precocity some great price is always demanded sooner or later in life.

If any individual live too much in relations, so that he becomes a stranger to the resources of his own nature, he falls, after a while, into a distraction, or imbecility, from which he can only be cured by a time of isolation, which gives the renovating fountains time to rise up.

Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering pot and the pruning knife.

there is such a rebound from parental influence that it generally seems that the child makes use of the directions given by the parent only to avoid the prescribed path.

There are noble books but one wants the breath of life sometimes. And I see no divine person. I myself am more divine than any I see I think that is enough to say about them.

What a difference it makes to come home to a child!