Skip to content

Everyone confesses in the abstract that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us all; but practically most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do.

— Harriet Beecher Stowe

Another quote →

More quotes by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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

Little Foxes (1865)

True love ennobles and dignifies the material labors of life; and homely services rendered for love's sake have in them a poetry that is immortal.

Household Papers and Stories (1864)

By what strange law of mind is it that an idea long overlooked, and trodden under foot as a useless stone, suddenly sparkles out in new light, as a discovered diamond?

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good.

Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

Human nature is above all things — lazy.

Household Papers and Stories (1864)

All Harriet Beecher Stowe quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Harriet Beecher Stowe (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.