76 Harriet Beecher Stowe Quotes From The Inspirational Abolitionist That Everyone Should Know

Georgia Stone
Dec 12, 2023 By Georgia Stone
Originally Published on Mar 09, 2021
Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes are inspirational.
Age: 0-99
Read time: 9.3 Min

Born on 14 June 1811, Harriet Beecher Stowe came from a then-famous religious family, the Beecher family.

She was best known for her writings and views on social issues of the time. Most famous for her novel, 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin', in this book she outlined the difficulties of the life of enslaved people.

Stowe met President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, describing the meeting as funny. The President reportedly said, “So this is the little lady who made this big war!” Stowe is most famous for her works like 'Uncle Tom’s Cabin', 'The Minister’s Wooing', and more, as well as her collections of letters and articles. This is where most of her quotes come from. She died on July 1, 1896.

Here are some famous Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes. We have in this list Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes about the Civil War, Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes about children and slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes from 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', and even some inspiring Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes for Facebook.

If you like these Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes, you might want to read these African American quotes and after the storm quotes too.

Harriet Beecher Stowe met with Abraham Lincoln.

Quotes From Harriet Beecher Stowe About Equality And Kindness

Harriet Beecher Stowe's book 'The Minister's Wooing' raises issues like slavery and Calvinism with much force, and no words left unsaid. Read this list to find Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes on the subject of equality and more. Share these Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes and meanings with your friends.

1. “The longest way must have its close - the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

2. “For, so inconsistent is human nature, especially in the ideal, that not to undertake a thing at all seems better than to undertake and come short.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

3. “Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

4. “The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

5. “We never know how we love til we try to unlove!”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

6. “It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

7. “When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you until it seems that you cannot hold on for a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time when the tide will turn.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

8. “To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

9. “Human nature is above all things lazy.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

10. “I would not attack the faith of a heathen without being sure I had a better one to put in its place.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

11. “So much has been said and sung of beautiful young girls, why doesn't somebody wake up to the beauty of old women.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

12. “And, perhaps, among us may be found generous spirits, who do not estimate honor and justice by dollars and cents.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

13. “Everything your money can buy, given with a cold, averted face, is not worth one honest tear shed in real sympathy?”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

14. “Friendships are discovered rather than made.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

15. “There's a way you political folks have of coming round and round a plain right thing.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

16. “Still waters run deepest, they used to tell me.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

17. “No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

18. “Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: You have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

19. “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

20. "If women want any rights they had better take them, and say nothing about it."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

21. "What makes saintliness in my view, as distinguished from ordinary goodness, is a certain quality of magnanimity and greatness of soul that brings life within the circle of the heroic."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

22. "One of the greatest reforms that could be, in these reforming days... would be to have women architects."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

23. "The longest day must have its close -- the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

24. "Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

25. “When a man can walk up to the ballot-box with his wife or sister on his arm, the voting places will be far more agreeable than now…”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

26. “In the old times, women did not get their lives written, though I don’t doubt many of them were much better worth writing than the men’s.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

27. “So subtle is the atmosphere of opinion that it will make itself felt without words.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

28. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

29. “The past, the present, and the future are really one: they are today.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

30. “I feel now that the time is come when even a woman or a child who can speak a word for freedom and humanity is bound to speak…”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

31. “There is more done with pens than with swords.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

32. “Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

'Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin' is one of Stowe\u2019s most famous works on slavery.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Quotes About Slavery

'Uncle Tom’s Cabin' (1852), outlines the experiences of enslaved people in such detail that it is believed to be one of the factors that prompted the American Civil War. 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' quotes provide a passionate argument against slavery. Listed below are some famous Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes on slavery.

33. “Talk of the abuses of slavery! Humbug! The thing itself is the essence of all abuse!”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

34. “Many a humble soul will be amazed to find that the seed it sowed in weakness, in the dust of daily life, has blossomed into immortal flowers under the eye of the Lord.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

35. “Half the misery in the world comes of want of courage to speak and to hear the truth plainly and in a spirit of love.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

36. “... it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best regulated administration of slavery.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

37. “The greater the interest involved in a truth the more careful, self-distrustful, and patient should be the inquiry.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

38. “What shall a man do with a sublime tier of moral faculties, when the most profitable business out of his port is the slave-trade?”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

39. “The obstinancy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinancy of folly and inanity.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

40. “Care and labor are as much correlated to human existence as shadow is to light…”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

41. “To do common things perfectly is far better worth our endeavor than to do uncommon things respectably.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

42. “...the heart has no tears to give,--it drops only blood, bleeding itself away in silence.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

43. “The water of the river is the calmest, where the deepest.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

44. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

45. “Some jokes are less agreeable than others.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

46. “In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

47. “Now is the only time there ever is to do a thing in.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

48. “All men are free and equal, in the grave.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

49. “What man has nerve to do, man has not nerve to hear.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

50. “Liberty! - - Electric word!”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

51. “Strange, what brings these past things so vividly back to us, sometimes!”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

52. “Witness, eternal God! Oh, witness that, from this hour, I will do what one man can to drive out this curse of slavery from my land!”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

53. “I am braver than I was because I have lost all; and he who has nothing to lose can afford all risks.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

54. “Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does no good not to do harm.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

55. “Once in an age, God sends to some of us a friend who loves in us... not the person that we are, But the angel we may be.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

56. “Common sense is seeing things as they are; and doing things as they ought to be.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

57. “Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

58. “I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

59. “There are griefs which grow with years.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

60. “It is one mark of a superior mind to understand and be influenced by the superiority of others.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

61. “People who hate trouble generally get a good deal of it.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

62. “Self respect is impossible without liberty...”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

63. “A woman's health is her capital.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

64. “General rules will bear hard on particular cases.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

65. “The pain of discipline is short, but the glory of the fruition is eternal.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

66. “Sensitive people never like the fatigue of justifying their instincts.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

67. “The heaviest anguish often precedes a return tide of joy and courage.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

68. “All serious daring starts from within.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

69. “Women are the real architects of the society.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

70. “Never trust to prayer without using every means in your power, and never use the means without trusting in prayer.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

71. “They will raise, and raise with them their mother's side.”

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

72. "Treat 'em like dogs, and you'll have dogs' works and dogs' actions. Treat 'em like men, and you'll have men's works."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

73. "Money is a great help everywhere;—can't have too much, if you get it honestly."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

74. "There can be no true home without liberty."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

75. "The power to create a home ought to be ranked above all creative faculties."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

76. "Love is very beautiful, but very, very sad."

- Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes, then why not take a look at these [unconditional love quotes] or tranquility quotes for more inspiring quotes about life?

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Written by Georgia Stone

Bachelor of Arts specializing in French with Film Studies, Bachelor of Arts (Year Abroad) specializing in Literature, History, Language, Media, and Art

Georgia Stone picture

Georgia StoneBachelor of Arts specializing in French with Film Studies, Bachelor of Arts (Year Abroad) specializing in Literature, History, Language, Media, and Art

Georgia is an experienced Content Manager with a degree in French and Film Studies from King's College London and Bachelors degree from Université Paris-Sorbonne. Her passion for exploring the world and experiencing different cultures was sparked during her childhood in Switzerland and her year abroad in Paris. In her spare time, Georgia enjoys using London's excellent travel connections to explore further afield.

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