Quotes by Dorothea Dix

“But the truth is the highest consideration.”

“The rose is the flower and handmaiden of love - the lily, her fair associate, is the emblem of beauty and purity.”

“The duties of a teacher are neither few nor small, but they elevate the mind and give energy to the character.”

“To me, the avocation of a teacher has something elevating and exciting. While surrounded by the young, one may always be doing good.”

“I shall try and effect all that is before me to perform; and God, I think, will surely give me strength for His work so long as He directs my line of duty.”

“With care and patience, people may accomplish things which, to an indolent person, would appear impossible.”

“As you have learnt something of time, value and make a proper use of it. Once past, it knows no return; how necessary, then, that you spend it in improving your mind and fitting it for future happi...”

“What greater bliss than to look back on days spent in usefulness, in doing good to those around us.”

“We are not sent into this world mainly to enjoy the loveliness therein, nor to sit us down in passive ease; no, we were sent here for action. The soul that seeks to do the will of God with a pure h...”

“Pleasures take to themselves wings and fly away true knowledge remains forever.”

“The olive branch has been consecrated to peace, palm branches to victory, the laurel to conquest and poetry, the myrtle to love and pleasure, the cypress to mourning, and the willow to despondency.”

“I must study alone, as I am condemned to do every thing alone, I believe, in this life.”

“Time passed solely in the pursuit of pleasure leaves no solid enjoyment for the future; but from the hours you spend in reading and studying useful books, you will gather a golden harvest in future...”

“I found, near Boston, in the jails and asylums for the poor, a numerous class brought into unsuitable connection with criminals and the general mass of paupers. I refer to idiots and insane persons...”

“The condition of human beings, reduced to the extremest states of degradation and misery, cannot be exhibited in softened language, or adorn a polished page.”

“I proceed, gentlemen, briefly to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within this Commonwealth, in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, naked, beaten with ...”

“Familiarity with suffering, it is said, blunts the sensibilities, and where neglect once finds a footing other injuries are multiplied.”

“Prisons are not constructed in view of being converted into county hospitals, and almshouses are not founded as receptacles for the insane. And yet, in the face of justice and common sense, wardens...”

“I approach you with confidence as the advocate of those who, alas, cannot plead their own cause — of those in whom the light of the understanding is darkened, and who are crushed under the weight o...”

“Of all the calamities to which ‘humanity is subject, none is so dreadful as insanity. Pinching want, hideous deformity, acute disease, mutilation, deafness, blindness; all these are distressing in ...”