Sarah Josepha Hale Quotes

No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.

It requires but a few threads of hope, for the heart that is skilled in the secret, to weave a web of happiness.

In this age of innovation perhaps no experiment will have an influence more important on the character and happiness of our society than the granting to females the advantages of a systematic and thorough education.

Democracies have been, and governments called, free; but the spirit of independence and the consciousness of unalienable rights, were never before transfused into the minds of a whole people....The feeling of equality which they proudly cherish does not proceed from an ignorance of their station, but from the knowledge of their rights; and it is this knowledge which will render it so exceedingly difficult for any tyrant ever to triumph over the liberties of our country.

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. The fearful are the failing.

There can be no education without leisure; and without leisure, education is worthless.

The temple of our purest thoughts is silence.

There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent.

The most welcome guest in society will ever be the one to whose mind everything is a suggestion, and whose words suggest something to everybody.

Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty.

... rights are liable to be perverted to wrongs when we are incapable of rightly exercising them.

Riches are always over estimated; the enjoyment they give is more in the pursuit than the possession.

O, beautiful rainbow; - all woven of light! There's not in thy tissue, one shadow of night; Heaven surely is open when thou dost appear, And, bending above thee, the angels draw near, And sing, - "The rainbow! the rainbow! "The smile of God is here."

The burning soul, the burden'd mind, In books alone companions find.

There is no influence so powerful as that of the mother, but next in rank in efficacy is that of the schoolmaster.

This is a speculating and selfish age; and to think 'money will answer all things,' is too much the characteristic of Americans.

A man is never more satisfied than when he is confirming a favorite theory.

Crackers, toasted or hard bread may be added a short time before the soup is wanted; but do not put in those libels on civilized cookery, called DUMPLINGS! One might about as well eat, with the hope of digesting, a brick from the ruins of Babylon, as one of the hard, heavy masses of boiled dough which usually pass under this name.

A blessing on the printer's art!-- Books are the mentors of the heart.

Nor need we power or splendor, wide hall or lordly dome; The good, the true, the tender - these form the wealth of home.

And you each gentle animal In confidence may bind, And make them follow at your call, If you are always kind.

Oh! welcome to the wearied Earth The Sabbath resting comes, Gathering the sons of toil and care Back to their peaceful homes; And, like a portal to the skies, Opens the House of God, Where all who seek may come and learn The way the Saviour trod. But holier to the wanderer seems The Sabbath on the deep, When on, and on, in ceaseless course, The toiling bark must keep, And not a trace of man appears Amid the wilderness Of waters--then it comes like dove Direct from heaven to bless.

Morning ... 'tis Nature's gayest hour!

It is useless to check the vain dunce who has caught the mania of scribbling, whether prose or poetry, canzonets or criticisms,--let such a one go on till the disease exhausts itself. Opposition like water, thrown on burning oil, but increases the evil, because a person of weak judgment will seldom listen to reason, but become obstinate under reproof.

Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost.