A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.
Lydia M. Child

An effort made for the happiness of others lifts above ourselves.
Lydia M. Child

Belief in oneself is one of the most important bricks in building any successful venture.
Lydia M. Child

But men never violate the laws of God without suffering the consequences, sooner or later.
Lydia M. Child

Childhood itself is scarcely more lovely than a cheerful, kindly, sunshiny old age.
Lydia M. Child

Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not always tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.
Lydia M. Child

Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs.
Lydia M. Child

Home - that blessed word, which opens to the human heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an angel's wings.
Lydia M. Child

I was gravely warned by some of my female acquaintances that no woman could expect to be regarded as a lady after she had written a book.
Lydia M. Child

It is right noble to fight with wickedness and wrong; the mistake is in supposing that spiritual evil can be overcome by physical means.
Lydia M. Child


Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.
Lydia M. Child

None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.
Lydia M. Child

That a majority of women do not wish for any important change in their social and civil condition, merely proves that they are the unreflecting slaves of custom.
Lydia M. Child

The cure for all the ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows, and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love'. It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life.
Lydia M. Child

The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.
Lydia M. Child

You find yourself refreshed in the presence of cheerful people. Why not make an honest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy.
Lydia M. Child