Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineau
Harriet Martineauwas a British social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth12 June 1802
numbers matter principles
There are always principles to be depended upon in this matter of taxation ... Amidst the inconsistent, the bewildering representations offered, a certain number must be in accordance with true principles ...
class efforts
The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always,takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.
believe believing cannot english-writer help prove
We do not believe in immortality because we can prove it, but we try to prove it because we cannot help believing it.
best great ideas performs small
A soul preoccupied with great ideas best performs small duties.
heart men world
Men who pass most comfortably through this world are those who possess good digestions and hard hearts.
writing sacrifice order
if I believed that the choice lay between a sacrifice of the completest order of biography and that of the inviolability of private epistolary correspondence, I could not hesitate for a moment. I would keep the old and precious privacy,-the inestimable right of every one who has a friend and can write to him, - I would keep our written confidence from being made biographical material, as anxiously as I would keep our spoken conversation from being noted down for the good of society.
dream song echoes
Day-thoughts feed nightly dreams; And sorrow tracketh wrong, As echo follows song.
love lying disease
Must love be ever treated with profaneness as a mere illusion? or with coarseness as a mere impulse? or with fear as a mere disease? or with shame as a mere weakness? or with levity as a mere accident? whereas it is a great mystery and a great necessity, lying at the foundation of human existence, morality, and happiness,--mysterious, universal, inevitable as death.
education mother children
School is no place of education for any children whatever till their minds are well put in action. This is the work which has to be done at home, and which may be done in all homes where the mother is a sensible woman.
men justice atheism
I certainly never believed, more or less, in the "essential doctrines" of Christianity, which represent God as the predestinator of men to sin and perdition, and Christ as their rescuer from that doom. I never was more or less behuiled by the trickery of language by which the perdition of man is made out to be justice, and his redemption to be mercy.
heart taught-us mind
The lesson taught us by these kindly commentators on my present experience is that dogmatic faith compels the best minds and hearts to narrowness and insolence.
class effort progression
The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.
land mind pieces
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.
powerful evil sick
The sick-room becomes the scene of intense convictions; and among these, none, it seems to me, is more distinct and powerful than that of the permanent nature of good, and the transient nature of evil.