Alice Duer Miller Quotes & Sayings

Mother, what is a Feminist?"
"A feminist, my daughter,
Is any woman now who cares
To think about her own affairs
As men don't think she oughter. — Alice Duer Miller

It is always difficult for a woman to be grateful for a form of chivalry that seems to be based on the premise that she is a moron. — Alice Duer Miller

Conversation is a partnership, not a relation of master and slave, as most people try to make it. — Alice Duer Miller

Chivalry:
It's treating a woman politely
As long as she isn't a fright:
It's guarding the girls who act rightly,
If you can be judge of what's right;
It's being - not just, but so pleasant;
It's tipping while wages are low;
It's making a beautiful present,
And failing to pay what you owe. — Alice Duer Miller

No one has ever explained why it is that parents and guardians consider dull people such safe matrimonial investments for their young charges. Even granting the unsound assumption that dull people are more apt to be content with their own matrimonial fetters, they are certainly more apt to be the cause of discontent in others. — Alice Duer Miller

Love will not always linger longest with those who hold it in too clenched a fist. — Alice Duer Miller

It's hard upon occasions to be forceful and sublime
When you're treated as incompetents three-quarters of the time. — Alice Duer Miller

Rare indeed is the nature that does not become a little more intense when its own affairs come under discussion. — Alice Duer Miller

No one really believes in equality who's on top. — Alice Duer Miller

It's been my experience, Charlotte, that the crisis never comes as or when you expect. — Alice Duer Miller

Silences, as every observer knows, have strange characteristics all their own - passionate silences, and hateful silences, and silences full of friendly, purring content. — Alice Duer Miller

Don't Dare take your college as a matter of course- because like freedom and democracy, many people you'll never know anything about have broken their hearts to get it for you. — Alice Duer Miller

Hate is perhaps the most dynamic of all emotions - fear may immobilize, love may stay the hand, but hate urges to action ... — Alice Duer Miller

It is among the commonplaces of education that we often first cut off the living root and then try to replace its natural functions by artificial means. Thus we suppress the child's curiosity and then when he lacks a natural interest in learning he is offered special coaching for his scholastic coaching for his scholastic difficulties. — Alice Duer Miller

Good manners are the techniques of expressing consideration for the feelings of others. — Alice Duer Miller

People who deal in truth themselves recognize it when they hear it, just as people who deal in diamonds recognize a real stone when they see it. — Alice Duer Miller

People love to talk but hate to listen. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us. You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer. — Alice Duer Miller

There, little girl, don't read,
You're fond of your books, I know,
But Brother might mope
If he had no hope
Of getting ahead of you.
It's dull for a boy who cannot lead.
There, little girl, don't read. — Alice Duer Miller

And now too late, we see these things are one:
The art is sacrifice and self-control
And who loves beauty must be stern of soul. — Alice Duer Miller

Is it true that the English government is calling on women to do work abandoned by men?
Yes, it is true.
Is not a woman's place the home?
No, not when men need her services outside the home.
Will she never be told again that her place is the home?
Oh, yes, indeed.
When?
As soon as men want their jobs back again. — Alice Duer Miller

I was not out to paint beautiful pictures; even painting good pictures was not important to me. I wanted only to help the truth burst forth. — Alice Duer Miller

The strongest will is the will that knows how to bend. — Alice Duer Miller

When a woman like that whom I've seen so much, All of a sudden drops out of touch; Is always busy and never can, Spare you a moment, it means a man. — Alice Duer Miller

In a world where England is finished and dead: I do not wish to live. — Alice Duer Miller

Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger, but faces it head on — Alice Duer Miller

Men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this ... — Alice Duer Miller

If it's painful for you to criticize your friends, you're safe in doing it; if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that's the time to hold your tongue. — Alice Duer Miller

They make other nations seem pale and flighty,
But they do think England is God almighty,
And you must remind them now and then
That other countries breed other men. — Alice Duer Miller

When men in Congress come to blows at somemthing someone said,
I always notice that it shows their blood is quick and red;
But if two women disagree, with very little noise,
It proves, and this seems strange to me, that women have no poise. — Alice Duer Miller