Margaret Fuller Quotes
It is not because the touch of genius has roused genius to production, but because the admiration of genius has made talent ambitious, that the harvest is still so abundant.
It seems that it is madder never to abandon one's self than often to be infatuated; better to be wounded, a captive and a slave, than always to walk in armor.
Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.
Spirits that have once been sincerely united and tended together a sacred flame, never become entirely stranger to one another's life.
How anyone can remain a Catholic - I mean who has ever been aroused to think, and is not biased by the partialities of childish years - after seeing Catholicism here in Italy I cannot conceive.
I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.
With the intellect I always have always shall overcome, but that is not the half of the work. The life, the life Oh my God! shall the life never be sweet!
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.
How many persons must there be who cannot worship alone since they are content with so little.
Nature seems to have poured forth her riches so without calculation, merely to mark the fullness of her joy.
As to marriage, I think the intercourse of heart and mind may be fully enjoyed without entering into this partnership of daily life.
Not one man, in the million, shall I say? no, not in the hundred million, can rise above the belief that woman was made for man.
The mind is not, I know, a highway, but a temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left open.
I should never stand alone in this desert world, but that manna would drop from heaven, if I would but rise with every rising sun to gather it.
To one who has enjoyed the full life of any scene, of any hour, what thoughts can be recorded about it seem like the commas and semicolons in the paragraph-mere stops.
... the Power who gave a power, by its mere existence, signifies that it must be brought out towards perfection.
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.
Union is only possible to those who are units. To be fit for relations in time, souls, whether of man or woman, must be able to do without them in the spirit.
A man who means to think and write a great deal must, after six and twenty, learn to read with his fingers.
I stand in the sunny noon of life. Objects no longer glitter in the dews of morning, neither are yet softened by the shadows of evening.
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.
The Arabian horse will not plough well, nor can the plough-horse be rode to play the jereed.
The Greeks saw everything in forms which we are trying to ascertain as law, and classify as cause.
The man of science dissects the statement, verifies the facts, and demonstrates connection even where he cannot its purpose.
After having admired the women of Rome, say to yourself, 'I too am beautiful!' ... In you I met a real person. I need not give you any other praise.
The only woman to whom it has been given to touch what is decisive in the present world and to have a presentiment of the world of the future.
Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - a house is no home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
Every fact is impure, but every fact contains in it the juices of life. Every fact is a clod, from which may grow an amaranth or a palm.
There is some danger lest there be no real religion in the heart which craves too much daily sympathy.
All great expression, which on a superficial survey seems so easy as well as so simple, furnishes after a while, to the faithful observer, its own standard by which to appreciate it.
Our capacities, our instincts for this our present sphere are but half developed. Let us be completely natural; before we trouble ourselves with the supernatural.
If anything can be invented more excruciating than an English Opera, such as was the fashion at the time I was in London, I am sure no sin of mine deserves the punishment of bearing it.
I know of no inquiry which the impulses of man suggests that is forbidden to the resolution of man to pursue.
Some degree of expression is necessary for growth, but it should be little in proportion to the full life.
All greatness affects different minds, each in its own particular kind, and the variations of testimony mark the truth of feeling.
Tragedy is always a mistake; and the loneliness of the deepest thinker, the widest lover, ceases to be pathetic to us so soon as the sun is high enough above the mountains.
Put up at the moment of greatest suffering a prayer, not for thy own escape, but for the enfranchisement of some being dear to thee, and the sovereign spirit will accept thy ransom.
