Of all the calamities to which humanity is subject, none is so dreadful as insanity. ... All experience shows that insanity seasonably treated is as certainly curable as a cold or a fever. Dorothea Dix More Quotes by Dorothea Dix More Quotes From Dorothea Dix I come to present the strong claims of suffering humanity. I come to place before the Legislature of Massachusetts the condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane men and women; of beings sunk to a condition from which the unconcerned world would start with real horror. Dorothea Dix strong real men I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within the commonwealth; in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens; chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience. Dorothea Dix insane-person cages gentleman Every evil has its good, and every ill an antidote. Dorothea Dix antidote ill evil Man is not made better by being degraded. Dorothea Dix made men I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow. Dorothea Dix tomorrow each-day worry Brains are still unfashionable for women to wear, and it has always been proof of women's superiority that the more intelligent a man is, the more women admire him, while the bigger fool a woman is, the more men run after her. Dorothea Dix intelligent running men Be of good cheer, for sadness cannot heal the national wounds. Dorothea Dix sadness heal cheer Society, during the last hundred years, has been alternately perplexed and encouraged, respecting the two great questions -how shall the criminal and pauper be disposed of, in order to reduce crime and reform the criminal on the one hand, and, on the other, to diminish pauperism and restore the pauper to useful citizenship? Dorothea Dix order hands years in proportion as my own discomfort has increased, my conviction of necessity to search into the wants of the friendless and afflicted has deepened. If I am cold, they too are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned. Dorothea Dix cold compassion want I have no particular love for my species, but own to an exhaustless fund of compassion Dorothea Dix species fund compassion Man is not made better by being degraded; he is seldom restrained from crime by harsh measures, except the principle of fear predominates in his character; and then he is never made radically better for its influence. Dorothea Dix principles character men I think even lying on my bed I can still do something. Dorothea Dix bed lying thinking [To a woman who claimed she'd rather be dead than unconfined and unfashionable:] My dear, if you continue to lace as tightly as you do now, you will not long have the privilege of choice. You will be both dead and out of fashion. Dorothea Dix fashion choices long But the truth is the highest consideration. Dorothea Dix consideration truth-is highest The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible. Dorothea Dix design cutting society A man usually values that most for which he has labored; he uses that most frugally which he has toiled hour by hour and day by day to acquire. Dorothea Dix hours use men In a world where there is so much to be done. I felt strongly impressed that there must be something for me to do. Dorothea Dix The rose is the flower and handmaiden of love - the lily, her fair associate, is the emblem of beauty and purity. Dorothea Dix flower rose beauty love What greater bliss than to look back on days spent in usefulness, in doing good to those around us. Dorothea Dix doing back good look I may be too craving of that rich gift, the power of sharing other minds. I have drunk deeply, long, and oh! how blissfully at this fountain in a foreign clime. Hearts met hearts, minds joined with minds; and what were the secondary trials of pain to the enfeebled, suffering body when daily was administered the soul's medicine and food! Dorothea Dix daily soul power food
