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Margaret Fuller

92 quotes

• “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.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A many-colored light flows from our sun; Art, 'neath its beams a motley thread has spun; The prison modifies the perfect day; But thou hast known such mediums to shun, And cast once more on life a pure white ray. Absorbed in the creations of thy mind, Forgetting daily self, my truest friend I find.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Mercury has cast aside The signs of intellectual pride, Freely offers thee the soul: Art thou noble to receive? Canst thou give or take the whole, Nobly promise and believe? Then thou wholly human art, A spotless, radiant, ruby heart, And the golden chain of love Has bound thee to the realm above.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Guard thee from the power of evil; Who cannot trust, vows to the devil.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “On the boundless plain careering By an unseen compass steering, Wildly flying, reappearing, — With untamed fire their broad eyes glowing In every step a grand pride showing, Of no servile moment knowing, —Happy as the trees and flowers, In their instinct cradled hours, Happier in fuller powers, —See the wild herd nobly ranging, Nature varying, not changing, Lawful in their lawless ranging.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “With equal sweetness the commissioned hours Shed light and dew upon both weeds and flowers. The weeds unthankful raise their vile heads high, Flaunting back insult to the gracious sky; While the dear flowers, wht fond humility, Uplift the eyelids of a starry eye In speechless homage, and, from grateful hearts, Perfume that homage all around imparts.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The pencil moved prophetic: together now men read In the fair book of nature, and find the hope they need. The wreath woven by the river is by the seaside worn, And one of fate's best arrows to its due mark is borne.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There are who separate the eternal light In forms of man and woman, day and night; They cannot bear that God be essence quite.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Existence is as deep a verity: Without the dual, where is unity? And the "I am"" cannot forbear to be;But from its primal nature forced to frame Mysteries, destinies of various name, Is forced to give that it has taught to claim.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “And dost thou seek to find the one in two? Only upon the old can build the new; The symbol which you seek is found in you.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “A single thought transfuses every form; The sunny day is changed into the storm, For light is dark, hard soft, and cold is warm.One presence fill and floods the whole serene; Nothing can be, nothing has ever been, Except the one truth that creates the scene.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “You ask a faith, — they are content with faith; You ask to have, — but they reply "IT hath." There is no end, there need be no path.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The day wears heavily, — why, then, ignore it; Peace is the soul's desire, — such thoughts restore it; The truth thou art, — it needs not implore it.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Presence all thy fancies supersedes, All that is done which thou wouldst seek in deeds, The wealth obliterates all seeming needs.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To me, our destinies seem flower and fruit Born of an ever-generating root...”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I do not think we are deceived to grow, But that the crudest fancy, slightest show, Covers some separate truth that we may know.In the one Truth, each separate fact is true; Eternally in one I many view, And destinies through destiny pursue.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This is my tendency; but can I say That this my thought leads the true, only way? I only know it constant leads, and I obey.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I only know one prayer — "Give me the truth, Give me that colored whiteness, ancient youth, Complex and simple, seen in joy and ruth.Let me not by vain wishes bar my claim, Nor soothe my hunger by an empty name, Nor crucify the Son of man by hasty blame.But in the earth and fire, water and air, Live earnestly by turns without despair, Nor seek a home till home be every where!”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Thoughts which come at a call Are no better than if they came not at all Neither flower nor fruit, Yielding no root For plant, shrub, or tree.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I prize thy gentle heart, Free from ambition, falsehood, or art, And thy good mind, Daily refined, By pure desire To fan the heaven-seeking fire.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Triune, shaping, restless power, Life-flow from life's natal hour, No music chords are in thy sound; By some thou'rt but a rattle found; Yet, without thy ceaseless motion, To ice would turn their dead devotion.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Life-flow of my natal hour, I will not weary of thy power, Till in the changes of thy sound A chord's three parts distinct are found. I will faithful move with thee, God-ordered, self-fed energy, Nature in eternity.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I am immortal! I know it! I feel it! Hope floods my heart with delight! Running on air mad with life dizzy, reeling, Upward I mount, — faith is sight, life is feeling, Hope is the day-star of might!”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It was thy kiss, Love, that made me immortal.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “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!”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me! Fear, Hope, and Longing, at strife, Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever, Gathering strength, gaining breath, — naught can sever Me from the Spirit of Life!”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “To feel that there is so quick a bound to intercourse, makes us prize the moment, but then also makes it so difficult to use. Yet this one thing I wish to say, where so many must be left unsaid. You tell me, that I may, probably never know you wholly. Indeed the obstacles of time and space may prevent my understanding the workings of character; many pages of my new book may be shut against me, better than to yourself. Perhaps? I believe in Ahnungen beyond anything.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Ahnungen means "Premonitions"; letter XIII to James Nathan (31 March 1845).

• “Were the destiny of woman thus exactly marked out, did she invariably retain the shelter of a parent’s or guardian’s roof till she married, did marriage give her a sure home and a protector, were she never liable to be made a widow, or, if so, sure of finding immediate protection from a brother or new husband, so that she might never be forced to stand alone one moment, and were her mind given for this world only, with no faculties capable of eternal growth and infinite improvement, we would still demand of her a far wider and more generous culture than is proposed by those who so anxiously define her sphere.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Article, The New York Daily Tribune (30 September 1845); quoted in Brilliant Bylines (1986) by Barbara Belford

• “There are two modes of criticism. One which … crushes to earth without mercy all the humble buds of Phantasy, all the plants that, though green and fruitful, are also a prey to insects or have suffered by drouth. It weeds well the garden, and cannot believe the weed in its native soil may be a pretty, graceful plant. There is another mode which enters into the natural history of every thing that breathes and lives, which believes no impulse to be entirely in vain, which scrutinizes circumstances, motive and object before it condemns, and believes there is a beauty in natural form, if its law and purpose be understood.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Poets of the People" in Art, Literature and the Drama (1858)

• “I never lived, that I remember, what you call a common natural day. All my days are touched by the supernatural, for I feel the pressure of hidden causes, and the presence, sometimes the communion, of unseen powers. It needs not that I should ask the clairvoyant whether "a spirit-world projects into ours." As to the specific evidence, I would not tarnish my mind by hasty reception. The mind is not, I know, a highway, but a temple, and its doors should not be carelessly left open. Yet it were sin, if indolence or coldness excluded what had a claim to enter; and I doubt whether, in the eyes of pure intelligence, an ill-grounded hasty rejection be not a greater sign of weakness than an ill-grounded and hasty faith.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The better part of wisdom is a sublime prudence, a pure and patient truth that will receive nothing it is not sure it can permanently lay to heart. Of our study there should be in proportion two-thirds of rejection to one of acceptance. And, amid the manifold infatuations and illusions of this world of emotion, a being capable of clear intelligence can do no better service than to hold himself upright, avoid nonsense, and do what chores lie in his way, acknowledging every moment that primal truth, which no fact exhibits, nor, if pressed by too warm a hope, will even indicate. I think, indeed, it is part of our lesson to give a formal consent to what is farcical, and to pick up our living and our virtue amid what is so ridiculous, hardly deigning a smile, and certainly not vexed. The work is done through all, if not by every one.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would have every path laid open to Woman as freely as to Man. Were this done, and a slight temporary fermentation allowed to subside, we should see crystallizations more pure and of more various beauty. We believe the divine energy would pervade nature to a degree unknown in the history of former ages, and that no discordant collision, but a ravishing harmony of the spheres, would ensue. Yet, then and only then will mankind be ripe for this, when inward and outward freedom for Woman as much as for Man shall be acknowledged as a right, not yielded as a concession.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The electrical, the magnetic element in Woman has not been fairly brought out at any period. Everything might be expected from it; she has far more of it than Man. This is commonly expressed by saying that her intuitions are more rapid and more correct. You will often see men of high intellect absolutely stupid in regard to the atmospheric changes, the fine invisible links which connect the forms of life around them, while common women, if pure and modest, so that a vulgar self do not overshadow the mental eye, will seize and delineate these with unerring discrimination. Women who combine this organization with creative genius are very commonly unhappy at present. They see too much to act in conformity with those around them, and their quick impulses seem folly to those who do not discern the motives. This is an usual effect of the apparition of genius, whether in Man or Woman, but is more frequent with regard to the latter, because a harmony, an obvious order and self-restraining decorum, is most expected from her. Then women of genius, even more than men, are likely to be enslaved by an impassioned sensibility. The world repels them more rudely, and they are of weaker bodily frame. Those who seem overladen with electricity frighten those around them.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But, in fact, they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman. History jeers at the attempts of physiologists to bind great original laws by the forms which flow from them. They make a rule; they say from observation what can and cannot be. In vain! Nature provides exceptions to every rule. She sends women to battle, and sets Hercules spinning; she enables women to bear immense burdens, cold, and frost; she enables the man, who feels maternal love, to nourish his infant like a mother.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the intuitive powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of the higher instincts would bring to a finely organized human being. It may appear as prophecy or as poesy. … and should these faculties have free play, I believe they will open new, deeper and purer sources of joyous inspiration than have as yet refreshed the earth. Let us be wise, and not impede the soul. Let her work as she will. Let us have one creative energy, one incessant revelation. Let it take what form it will, and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman, black or white.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Heroes have filled the zodiac of beneficent labors, and then given up their mortal part to the fire without a murmur. Sages and lawgivers have bent their whole nature to the search for truth, and thought themselves happy if they could buy, with the sacrifice of all temporal ease and pleasure, one seed for the future Eden. Poets and priests have strung the lyre with heart-strings, poured out their best blood upon the altar which, reare'd anew from age to age, shall at last sustain the flame which rises to highest heaven. What shall we say of those who, if not so directly, or so consciously, in connection with the central truth, yet, led and fashioned by a divine instinct, serve no less to develop and interpret the open secret of love passing into life, the divine energy creating for the purpose of happiness; — of the artist, whose hand, drawn by a preexistent harmony to a certain medium, moulds it to expressions of life more highly and completely organized than are seen elsewhere, and, by carrying out the intention of nature, reveals her meaning to those who are not yet sufficiently matured to divine it; of the philosopher, who listens steadily for causes, and, from those obvious, infers those yet unknown; of the historian, who, in faith that all events must have their reason and their aim, records them, and lays up archives from which the youth of prophets may be fed. The man of science dissects the statement, verifies the facts, and demonstrates connection even where he cannot its purpose·”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I stand in the sunny noon of life. Objects no longer glitter in the dews of morning, neither are yet softened by the shadows of evening. Every spot is seen, every chasm revealed. Climbing the dusty hill, some fair effigies that once stood for symbols of human destiny have been broken; those I still have with me show defects in this broad light. Yet enough is left, even by experience, to point distinctly to the glories of that destiny; faint, but not to be mistaken streaks of the future day. I can say with the bard, "Though many have suffered shipwreck, still beat noble hearts." Always the soul says to us all, Cherish your best hopes as a faith, and abide by them in action. Such shall be the effectual fervent means to their fulfilment.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) said by 1850 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There is a Polish countess here, who likes me much. She has been very handsome, still is, in the style of the full-blown rose. She is a widow, very rich, one of the emancipated women, naturally vivacious, and with talent. This woman envies me; she says, "How happy you are; so free, so serene, so attractive, so self-possessed!" I say not a word, but I do not look on myself as particularly enviable. A little money would have made me much more so; a little money would have enabled me to come here long ago, and find those that belong to me, or at least try my experiments; then my health would never have sunk, nor the best years of my life been wasted in useless friction. Had I money now, — could I only remain, take a faithful servant, and live alone, and still see those I love when it is best, that would suit me. It seems to me, very soon I shall be calmed, and begin to enjoy.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) first seen 1847 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter (17 November 1847)

• “My friends write to urge my return the talk of our country as the land of the future. It is so, but that spirit which made it all it is of value in my eyes, which gave me all hope with which I can sympathize for that future, is more alive here at present than in America. My country is at present spoiled by prosperity, stupid with the lust of gain, soiled by crime in its willing perpetuation of slavery, shamed by an unjust war, noble sentiment much forgotten even by individuals, the aims of politicians selfish or petty, the literature frivolous and venal. In Europe, amid the teachings of adversity, a nobler spirit is struggling — a spirit which cheers and animates mine. I hear earnest words of pure faith and love. I see deeds of brotherhood. This is what makes my America. I do not deeply distrust my country. She is not dead, but in my time she sleepeth, and the spirits of our fathers flame no more, but lies hid beneath the ashes. It will not be so long; bodies cannot live when the soul gets too overgrown with gluttony and falsehood.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) first seen 1848 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter XXIV (19 April 1848), ** Part II, Things and Thoughts of Europe, p. 326

• “We will worship by impromptu symbols, till the religion is framed for all Humanity. The beauty grows around us daily, the trees are now all in blossom and some of the vines; there is a Crown Imperial just in perfection, to which I paid my evening worship by the light of the fire, which reached to us, and there are flashes of lightning too. But I do not like the lightning so well as once, having been in too great danger. Yet just now a noble flash falls upon my paper, it ought to have noble thoughts to illumine, instead of these little nothings, but indeed to-night I write only to say: thou dear, dear friend, and we must must meet soon.”

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) first seen 1845 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Letter IV to James Nathan (March 1845).