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Harriet Martineau Biography

Harriet Martineau

Harriet Martineau (/ˈmɑːrtənˌoʊ/; 12 June 1802 – 27 June 1876) was a British social theorist and Whig writer, often cited as the first female sociologist.

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Harriet Martineau Quotes

There is no theory of a God, of an author of Nature, of an origin of the Universe, which is not utterly repugnant to my faculties. . .

Faculties, Faculty, Repugnant, Theory, Universe, Utterly

As the astronomer rejoices in new knowledge which compels him to give up the dignity of our globe as the centre, the pride, and even the final cause of the universe, so do those who have escaped from the Christian mythology enjoy their release from the superstition which fails to make them happy, fails to make them good, fails to make them wise, and has become as great an obstacle in the way of progress as the prior mythologies which it took the place of two thousand years ago.

Cause, Christian, Giving Up, Place, Release, Wise

The last degree of honesty has always been, and is still considered incompatible with statesmanship. To hunger and thirst after righteousness has been naturally, as it were, supposed a disqualification for affairs.

Considered, Degrees, Disqualification, Honesty, Hunger And Thirst, Naturally

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

Argument, Inspirational, Reasons, Weakness

In the United States, as elsewhere, there are, and have always been, two parties in politics. . . It is remarkable how nearly their positive statements of political doctrine agree, while they differ in almost every possible application of their common principles.

Elsewhere, Nearly, Party, Political, Possible, Two

I wrote because I could not help it. There was something that I wanted to say, and I said it: that was all. The fame and the money and the usefulness might or might not follow. It was not by my endeavor if they did.

Fame, Helping, Might, Say, Wrote

it is a testament to the strength and purity of the democratic sentiment in the country, that the republic has not been overthrown by its newspapers.

Country, Newspapers, Overthrown, Purity, Republic, Sentiment

There is no death to those who perfectly love-only disappearance, which in time may be borne.

Death, Disappearance, Grief, May, Perfectly, Time

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring. It is characteristic of genius to break up the artificial arrangements of conventionalism, and to view mankind in true perspective, in their gradations of inherent rather than of adventitious worth. Genius is therefore essentially democratic, and has always been so.

Arrangements, Characteristic, Gradations, Hopeful, Perspective, Views

What office is there which involves more responsibility, which requires more qualifications, and which ought, therefore, to be more honorable, than that of teaching?

Involves, Requires, Responsibility, Teacher, Teaching

All people interested in their work are liable to overrate their vocation. There may be makers of dolls' eyes who wonder how society would go on without them.

Dolls, Eye, Interested, Overrate, People, Wonder

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

Class, Effort, Emancipation, Progression, Takes, Usually

the systematic abuse with which the newspapers of one side assail every candidate coming forward on the other, is the cause of many honorable men, who have a regard to their reputation, being deterred from entering public life; and of the people being thus deprived of some better servants than any they have.

Honorable Man, Men, People, Regard, Side

I hope and believe my co-religionists understand and admit that I disclaim their theology in toto, and that by no twisting of language or darkening of its meanings can I be made to have any thing whatever in common with them about religious matters. . . they must take my word for it that there is nothing in common between their theology and my philosophy.

Believe, Language, Nothing, Philosophy, Religious, Take

. . . is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race?

Bear, Declaration, Independence, Principles, Race, Understanding

I romanced internally about early death till it was too late to die early.

Death, Early Death, Internally, Late, Romanced, Too Late

Wherever the appearance of a conventional aristocracy exists in America, it must arise from wealth, as it cannot from birth. An aristocracy of mere wealth is vulgar everywhere. In a republic, it is vulgar in the extreme.

America, Aristocracy, Republic, Wherever, Mere

Of tobacco and its consequences, I will say nothing but that the practice is at too bad a pass to leave hope that anything that could be said in books would work a cure. If the floors of boarding-houses, and the decks of steam-boats, and the carpets of the Capitol, do not sicken the Americans into a reform; if the warnings of physicians are of no avail, what remains to be said? I dismiss the nauseous subject.

Bad, Book, House, Pass, Practice, Work

Public opinion, - a tyrant, sitting in the dark, wrapt up in mystification and vague terrors of obscurity; deriving power no one knows from whom. . . - but irresistible in its power to quell thought, to repress action, to silence conviction.

Dark, Obscurity, Opinion, Repress, Silence, Tyrants

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.

Land, Mind, Piece, Pieces, Possession

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