Sarah Josepha Hale Quotes

Americans have two ardent passions; the love of liberty, and love of distinction.

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

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

The fearful are the failing.

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

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow...

Happiness is, in truth, a very cheap thing, when the heart will be contented to traffic with nature - art has quite a different price.

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.

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.

No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.

The temple of our purest thoughts is silence.

Self-control, in every station and to every individual, is indispensable, if people would retain that equanimity of mind, which, depending on self-respect, is the essential of contentment and happiness.

I've learned to judge of men by their own deeds;
I do not make the accident of birth
The standard of their merit.

Though youth be past, and beauty fled,
The constant heart its pledge redeems,
Like box, that guards the flowerless bed
And brighter from the contrast seems.

Many tender, delicate mothers, seem to think that to make their children eat, is all that is requisite to make them great.

Next to genius is the power of feeling where true genius lies.

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

And evermore the waters worship God;
And bards and prophets tune their mystic lyres
While listening to the music of the waves!

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.

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

It is a bad business, dealing in lottery tickets ... Riches got in such a hasty manner never wear well.

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

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

Oh, wondrous power! how little understood, Entrusted to the mother's mind alone, To fashion genius, form the soul for good, Inspire a West, or train a Washington.

Hail, Holy Day! the blessing from above
Brightens thy presence like a smile of love,
Smoothing, like oil upon a stormy sea,
The roughest waves of human destiny
Cheering the good, and to the poor oppress'd
Bearing the promise of their heavenly rest.

Those who cannot think, have, in my opinion, a necessity (which goes very far towards creating a right) for amusement.

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.

There is hardly a more heart-thrilling pleasure enjoyed by mortals, than that which parents feel when seeing their child first being able to 'catch knowledge of objects.

There are few sensations more painful, than, in the midst of deep grief, to know that the season which we have always associated with mirth and rejoicing is at hand.

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.

Rugged strength and radiant beauty
These were one in Nature's plan;
Humble toil and heavenward duty
These will form the perfect man.

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.