“The use of criticism, in periodical writing, is to sift, not to stamp a work.”

— Margaret Fuller, "A Short Essay on Critics," Papers on Literature and Art (1846)

About Margaret Fuller

1810 – 1850

American journalist and women's rights advocate, author of "Woman in the Nineteenth Century".

“A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body.”

“Might the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy be laid to heart!”

“All around us lies what we neither understand nor use.”

“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty!”

“We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.”

“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.”

“Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do.”

“Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness?”

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”