Harriet Martineau

There have been few things in my life which have had a more genial effect on my mind than the possession of a piece of land

If a test of civilization be sought, none can be so sure as the condition of that half of society over which the other half has power.

It is my deliberate opinion that the one essential requisite of human welfare in all ways is scientific knowledge of human nature.

The sum and substance of female education in America, as in England, is training women to consider marriage as the sole object in life, and to pretend that they do not think so.

Any one must see at a glance that if men and women marry those whom they do not love, they must love those whom they do not marry.

Religion is a temper, not a pursuit.

But is it not the fact that religion emanates from the nature, from the moral state of the individual? Is it not therefore true that unless the nature be completely exercised, the moral state harmonized, the religion cannot be healthy?

A soul occupied with great ideas performs small duties.

You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.

Who is apt on occasion to assign a multitude of reasons when one will do? This is a sure sign of weakness in argument.

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.

Happiness consists in the full employment of our faculties in some pursuit.

[Americans] have realized many things for which the rest of the world is still struggling...[yet] the civilization and the morals of the Americans fall far below their own principles.