1802-1880, American Abolitionist, Writer, Editor
A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth. Instead of its bringing sad and melancholy prospects of decay, it would give us hopes of eternal youth in a better world.
Lydia M. Child – [Age and Aging]
A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.
Lydia M. Child – [Reform]
Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!
Lydia M. Child – [Fathers]
But men never violate the laws of God without suffering the consequences, sooner or later.
Lydia M. Child – [Judgment and Judges]
Childhood itself is scarcely more lovely than a cheerful, kindly, sunshiny old age.
Lydia M. Child – [Age and Aging]
Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not always tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.
Lydia M. Child – [Caution]
Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of the character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.
Lydia M. Child – [Flowers]
Home — that blessed word, which opens to the human heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an angel's wings.
Lydia M. Child – [Home]
Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face. Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs.
Lydia M. Child – [Misfortunes]
None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.
Lydia M. Child – [Jesus Christ]
Reverence is the highest quality of man's nature; and that individual, or nation, which has it slightly developed, is so far unfortunate. It is a strong spiritual instinct, and seeks to form channels for itself where none exists; thus Americans, in the dearth of other objects to worship, fall to worshiping themselves.
Lydia M. Child – [Worship]
That man's best works should be such bungling imitations of Nature's infinite perfection, matters not much; but that he should make himself an imitation, this is the fact which Nature moans over, and deprecates beseechingly. Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals! is the song she sings through warbling birds, and whispering pines, and roaring waves, and screeching winds.
Lydia M. Child – [Nature]
The cure for all the ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows, and the crimes of humanity, all lie in that one word ''Love.'' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life.
Lydia M. Child – [Love]
The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.
Lydia M. Child – [Genius]
The nearer society approaches to divine order, the less separation will there be in the characters, duties, and pursuits of men and women. Women will not become less gentle and graceful, but men will become more so. Women will not neglect the care and education of their children, but men will find themselves ennobled and refined by sharing those duties with them; and will receive, in return, co-operation and sympathy in the discharge of various other duties, now deemed inappropriate to women. The more women become rational companions, partners in business and in thought, as well as in affection and amusement, the more highly will men appreciate home.
Lydia M. Child – [Men and Women]