Sarah Josepha Hale Quotes & Sayings

What matter though the scorn of fools be given
If the path follow'd lead us on to heaven! — Sarah Josepha Hale

There can be no education without leisure; and without leisure, education is worthless. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Rugged strength and radiant beauty
These were one in Nature's plan;
Humble toil and heavenward duty
These will form the perfect man. — Sarah Josepha Hale

No influence is so powerful as that of the mother. — Sarah Josepha Hale

The engrossing pursuit of Americans is wealth. — Sarah Josepha Hale

There is no impossibility to him who stands prepared to conquer every hazard. The fearful are the failing. — Sarah Josepha Hale

The fearful are the failing. — Sarah Josepha Hale

It is a bad business, dealing in lottery tickets ... Riches got in such a hasty manner never wear well. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Americans have two ardent passions; the love of liberty, and love of distinction. — Sarah Josepha Hale

In this age of innovation perhaps no experiment will have an influence more important on the character and happiness of our society than the granting to females the advantages of a systematic and thorough education. — Sarah Josepha Hale

The most welcome guest in society will ever be the one to whose mind everything is a suggestion, and whose words suggest something to everybody. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Crackers, toasted or hard bread may be added a short time before the soup is wanted; but do not put in those libels on civilized cookery, called DUMPLINGS! One might about as well eat, with the hope of digesting, a brick from the ruins of Babylon, as one of the hard, heavy masses of boiled dough which usually pass under this name. — Sarah Josepha Hale

This is a speculating and selfish age; and to think 'money will answer all things,' is too much the characteristic of Americans. — Sarah Josepha Hale

There is small danger of being starved in our land of plenty; but the danger of being stuffed is imminent. — Sarah Josepha Hale

There is no influence so powerful as that of the mother, but next in rank in efficacy is that of the schoolmaster. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Oh! welcome to the wearied Earth
The Sabbath resting comes,
Gathering the sons of toil and care
Back to their peaceful homes;
And, like a portal to the skies,
Opens the House of God,
Where all who seek may come and learn
The way the Saviour trod.
But holier to the wanderer seems
The Sabbath on the deep,
When on, and on, in ceaseless course,
The toiling bark must keep,
And not a trace of man appears
Amid the wilderness
Of waters
then it comes like dove
Direct from heaven to bless. — Sarah Josepha Hale

I've learned to judge of men by their own deeds;
I do not make the accident of birth
The standard of their merit. — Sarah Josepha Hale

What a ready passport wealth gives its possessor to the good opinions of this world! — Sarah Josepha Hale

Those who cannot think, have, in my opinion, a necessity (which goes very far towards creating a right) for amusement. — Sarah Josepha Hale

And evermore the waters worship God;
And bards and prophets tune their mystic lyres
While listening to the music of the waves! — Sarah Josepha Hale

Democracies have been, and governments called, free; but the spirit of independence and the consciousness of unalienable rights, were never before transfused into the minds of a whole people ... The feeling of equality which they proudly cherish does not proceed from an ignorance of their station, but from the knowledge of their rights; and it is this knowledge which will render it so exceedingly difficult for any tyrant ever to triumph over the liberties of our country. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Do not, as you value the health and happiness of those who sit at your table, place before them hot leavened bread or biscuit. — Sarah Josepha Hale

There are few sensations more painful, than, in the midst of deep grief, to know that the season which we have always associated with mirth and rejoicing is at hand. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Among those kinds of food which the good housekeeper should scrupulously banish from her table, is that of hot leavened bread ... I believe it more often lays the foundation of diseases of the stomach, than any other kind of nourishment, used among us. — Sarah Josepha Hale

A man is never more satisfied than when he is confirming a favorite theory. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Riches are always over estimated; the enjoyment they give is more in the pursuit than the possession. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Rights are liable to be perverted to wrongs when we are incapable of rightly exercising them. — Sarah Josepha Hale

O, beautiful rainbow; - all woven of light! There's not in thy tissue, one shadow of night; Heaven surely is open when thou dost appear, And, bending above thee, the angels draw near, And sing, - The rainbow! the rainbow! The smile of God is here. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Many tender, delicate mothers, seem to think that to make their children eat, is all that is requisite to make them great. — Sarah Josepha Hale

It requires but a few threads of hope, for the heart that is skilled in the secret, to weave a web of happiness. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Nor need we power or splendor, wide hall or lordly dome;
The good, the true, the tender - these form the wealth of home. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Some determined advocates of the vegetable system maintain, that the teeth and stomach of the monkey correspond, in structure, very closely with that of man, yet it lives on fruits - therefore if man followed nature, he would live on fruits and vegetables. But though the anatomical likeness between man and monkeys is striking, yet it is not complete; the difference may be and doubtless is precisely that which makes a difference of diet necessary to nourish and develope their dissimilar natures. Those who should live as the monkeys do would most closely resemble them. — Sarah Josepha Hale

The temple of our purest thoughts is silence. — Sarah Josepha Hale

The burning soul, the burden'd mind,
In books alone companions find. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Happiness is, in truth, a very cheap thing, when the heart will be contented to traffic with nature - art has quite a different price. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Why is it that water, so monotonous in its characteristics, should nevertheless possess a charm for every mind? I believe it is chiefly because it bears the impress of the Creator, which we feel neither the power of time or of man can efface or alter. — Sarah Josepha Hale

And you each gentle animal
In confidence may bind,
And make them follow at your call,
If you are always kind. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Hail, Holy Day! the blessing from above
Brightens thy presence like a smile of love,
Smoothing, like oil upon a stormy sea,
The roughest waves of human destiny
Cheering the good, and to the poor oppress'd
Bearing the promise of their heavenly rest. — Sarah Josepha Hale

There is something in the decay of nature that awakens thought, even in the most trifling mind. — Sarah Josepha Hale

A blessing on the printer's art!
Books are the mentors of the heart. — Sarah Josepha Hale

There is hardly a more heart-thrilling pleasure enjoyed by mortals, than that which parents feel when seeing their child first being able to 'catch knowledge of objects. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Next to genius is the power of feeling where true genius lies. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow... — Sarah Josepha Hale

What in the rising man was industry and economy, becomes in the rich man parsimony and avarice. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Though youth be past, and beauty fled,
The constant heart its pledge redeems,
Like box, that guards the flowerless bed
And brighter from the contrast seems. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Self-control, in every station and to every individual, is indispensable, if people would retain that equanimity of mind, which, depending on self-respect, is the essential of contentment and happiness. — Sarah Josepha Hale

Oh, wondrous power! how little understood, Entrusted to the mother's mind alone, To fashion genius, form the soul for good, Inspire a West, or train a Washington. — Sarah Josepha Hale

It is useless to check the vain dunce who has caught the mania of scribbling, whether prose or poetry, canzonets or criticisms,
let such a one go on till the disease exhausts itself. Opposition like water, thrown on burning oil, but increases the evil, because a person of weak judgment will seldom listen to reason, but become obstinate under reproof. — Sarah Josepha Hale