Quote

[U]sefulness is happiness, and... all other things are but incidental.

Lydia M. Child

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lydia M. Child
Age: 78 †
Born: 1802
Born: January 1
Died: 1880
Died: January 1
Activist
Geologist
Journalist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
Medford
Massachusetts
Lydia Maria Francis Child
Things
Incidental
Happiness
Helping

More quotes by Lydia M. Child

Image
It is impossible to exaggerate the evil work theology has done in the world.
Lydia M. Child
Image
Neither lemonade nor anything else can prevent the inroads of old age. At present, I am stoical under its advances, and hope I shall remain so. I have but one prayer at heart and that is, to have my faculties so far preserved that I can be useful, in some way or other, to the last.
Lydia M. Child
Image
Genius hath electric power which earth can never tame.
Lydia M. Child
Image
An effort made for the happiness of others lifts above ourselves.
Lydia M. Child
Image
I was gravely warned by some of my female acquaintances that no woman could expect to be regarded as a lady after she had written a book.
Lydia M. Child
Image
It is my mission to help in the breaking down of classes, and to make all men feel as if they were brethren of the same family, sharing the same rights, the same capabilities, and the same responsibilities. While my hand can hold a pen, I will use it to this end and while my brain can earn a dollar, I will devote it to this end.
Lydia M. Child
Image
I keep working because I am quite sure that no particle of goodness or truth is ever really lost, however appearances may be to the contrary.
Lydia M. Child
Image
a great mind can attend to little things, but a little mind cannot attend to great things.
Lydia M. Child
Image
The laws of our being are such that we must perform some degree of use in the world, whether we intend it, or not but we can deprive ourselves of its indwelling joy, by acting entirely from the love of self.
Lydia M. Child
Image
The boughs of no two trees ever have the same arrangement. Nature always produces individuals She never produces classes.
Lydia M. Child
Image
It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil can be overcome by physical means.
Lydia M. Child
Image
Woman stock is rising in the market. I shall not live to see women vote, but I'll come and rap on the ballot box.
Lydia M. Child
Image
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
Image
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
Image
But men never violate the laws of God without suffering the consequences, sooner or later.
Lydia M. Child
Image
Law is not law, if it violates the principles of eternal justice.
Lydia M. Child
Image
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
Image
Happiness consists not in having much, but in wanting no more than you have.
Lydia M. Child
Image
Work! work! that is my unfailing cure for all troubles.
Lydia M. Child
Image
To everything there is a bright side and a dark side and I hold it to be unwise, unphilosophic, unkind to others, and unhealthy for one's own soul, to form the habit of looking on the dark side. Cheerfulness is to the spiritual atmosphere what sunshine is to the earthly landscape. I am resolved to cherish cheerfulness with might and main.
Lydia M. Child