Harriet Martineau - Society in America (1837)

34 Sourced Quotes

View all Harriet Martineau Quotes

A Sunday-school teacher asked a child… In what state were mankind left after the fall? — In the state of Vermont.

Harriet Martineau

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.

Harriet Martineau

Leisure, some degree of it, is necessary to the health of every man's spirit.

Harriet Martineau

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.

Harriet Martineau