In the first place, the government ought not to be invested with power to control the affections, any more than the consciences of citizens. A man has at least as good a right to choose his wife, as he has to choose his religion. His taste may not suit his neighbors; but so long as his deportment is correct, they have no right to interfere with his concerns.

Lydia M. Child

Categorized in : Long Men Wife

Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture.

Lydia M. Child

success motivational inspirational

An effort made for the happiness of others lifts above ourselves.

Lydia M. Child

helping-others happy happiness

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

spirit wise doe

You find yourself refreshed in the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.

Lydia M. Child

encouraging inspirational people

Make people happy and there will not be half the quarreling, or a tenth part of the wickedness there now is.

Lydia M. Child

wickedness half people

They [slaves] have stabbed themselves for freedom-jumped into the waves for freedom-starved for freedom-fought like very tigers for freedom! But they have been hung, and burned, and shot-and their tyrants have been their historians!

Lydia M. Child

tyrants diversity justice

our republican ideas cannot be consistently carried out while women are excluded from any share in the government. ... Any class of human beings to whom a position of perpetual subordination is assigned, however much they may be petted and flattered, must inevitably be dwarfed, morally and intellectually.

Lydia M. Child

government class ideas

Love is the divine quality that everywhere produces and restores life. To each and every one of us, it gives the power of working miracles if we will.

Lydia M. Child

miracle love giving

The boughs of no two trees ever have the same arrangement. Nature always produces individuals; She never produces classes.

Lydia M. Child

assessment being-yourself nature

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father.

Lydia M. Child

fathers-day family children

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 their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.

Lydia M. Child

angel flower love

The cure for all the ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows, and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love'. It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life.

Lydia M. Child

love peace lying

Prejudices of all kinds have their strongest holds in the minds of the vulgar and the ignorant.

Lydia M. Child

ignorant prejudice mind

Not in vain is Ireland pouring itself all over the earth. The Irish, with their glowing hearts and reverent credulity, are needed in this cold age of intellect and skepticism.

Lydia M. Child

glowing age heart

We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.

Lydia M. Child

crush diversity people

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

acquaintance female book

The rarest attainment is to grow old happily and gracefully.

Lydia M. Child

attainment aging grows

Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.

Lydia M. Child

angel clouds reality

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

angel clouds men

affectation is fond of making a greater show than reality. ... Nature and truth have never learned to blow the trumpet, and never will.

Lydia M. Child

trumpets blow reality