Margaret Fuller Quotes
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Man tells his aspiration in his God; but in his demon he shows his depth of experience; and casts light into the cavern through which he worked his cause up to the cheerful day.
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There exists in the minds of men a tone of feeling toward women as toward slaves.
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We doubt not the destiny of our country - that she is to accomplish great things for human nature, and be the mother of a nobler race than the world has yet known. But she has been so false to the scheme made out at her nativity, that it is now hard to say which way that destiny points.
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Let no one dare to call another mad who is not himself willing to rank in the same class for every perversion and fault of judgment. Let no one dare aid in punishing another as criminal who is not willing to suffer the penalty due to his own offenses.
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Art can only be truly art by presenting an adequate outward symbol of some fact in the interior life.
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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.
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Your prudence, my wise friend, allows too little room for the mysterious whisperings of life.
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You are intellect, I am life!
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Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering-pot and pruning-knife.
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Woman, self-centred, would never be absorbed by any relation it would be only an experience to her as to man. It is a vulgar error that love, a love, to Woman is her whole existence; she also is born for Truth and Love in their universal energy.
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Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved.
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Harmony exists no less in difference than in likeness, if only the same key-note govern both parts. Woman the poem, man the poet; woman the heart, man the head; such divisions are only important when they are never to be transcended. If nature is never bound down, nor the voice of inspiration stifled, that is enough.
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Wouldst have the princely spirit bowed? Whisper only, speak not loud, Mark and leave him in the crowd.Thou need'st not spies nor jailers have; The free will serve thee like the slave, Coward shrinking from the brave.
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Safety is not to be secured, then, by the wisest foresight. I shall embark more composedly in our merchant-ship, praying fervently, indeed, that it may not be my lot to lose my boy at sea, either by unsolaced illness, or amid the howling waves; or, if so, that Ossoli, Angelo, and I may go together, and that the anguish may be brief.
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Essays, entitled critical, are epistles addressed to the public, through which the mind of the recluse relieves itself of its impressions.
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The shrine is vowed to freedom, but, my friend, Freedom is but a means to gain an end. Freedom should build the temple, but the shrine Be consecrate to thought still more divine. The human bliss which angel hopes foresaw Is liberty to comprehend the law. Give, then, thy book a larger scope and frame, Comprising means and end in Truth's great name.
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Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.
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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...
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Plants of great vigor will almost always struggle into blossom, despite impediments. But there should be encouragement, and a free genial atmosphere for those of more timid sort, fair play for each in its own kind.
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We deemed the secret lost, the spirit gone, Which spake in Greek simplicity of thought, And in the forms of gods and heroes wrought Eternal beauty from the sculptured stone - A higher charm than modern culture won, With all the wealth of metaphysic lore, Gifted to analyze, dissect explore.
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There are to whom each symbol is a mask; The life of love is a mysterious task; They want no answer, for they would not ask.
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Come, let us mount on the wings of the morning, Flying for joy of the flight, Wild with all longing, now soaring, now staying, Mingling like day and dawn, swinging and swaying, Hung like a cloud in the light: I am immortal! I feel it! I feel it! Love bears me up, love is might!
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It was thy kiss, Love, that made me immortal.
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It is with just that hope that we welcome everything that tends to strengthen the fibre and develop the nature on more sides. When the intellect and affections are in harmony; when intellectual consciousness is calm and deep; inspiration will not be confounded with fancy.