Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More—Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist
Karen Swallow Prior
Top 10 Best Quotes
“…the rising movement of romanticism, with its characteristic idealism, one that tended toward a black-and-white view of the world based on those ideas, preferred for different reasons that women remain untinged by “masculine” traits of learning. Famous romantic writers such as Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Hazlitt criticized the bluestockings. …and Hazlitt declared his 'utter aversion to Bluestockingism … I do not care a fig for any woman that knows even what an author means.' Because of the tremendous influence that romanticism gained over the cultural mind-set, the term bluestocking came to be a derogatory term applied to learned, pedantic women, particularly conservative ones. ... Furthermore, learned women did not fit in with the romantic notion of a damsel in distress waiting to be rescued by a knight in shining armor any more than they fit in with the antirevolutionary fear of progress.”
“God can carry on his own work, though all such poor tools as I were broken.”
“A useful education served women best, More thought. To ‘learn how to grow old gracefully is perhaps one of the rarest and most valuable arts which can be taught to a woman.’ Yet, when beauty is all that is expected or desired in a woman, she is left with nothing in its absence. It ‘is a most severe trail for those women to be called to lay down beauty, who have nothing else to take up. It is for this sober season of life that education should lay up its rich resources,’ she argued.”
“The more I see of the ‘hounoured, famed, and great,’ the more I see of the littleness, the unsatisfactoriness of all created good; and that no earthly pleasure can fill up the wants of the immortal principle within.”
“Her shift in thinking was clearly conflicted. It must have been difficult to disavow something for which she had a deep love and in which she had been immersed so much of her life.”
“…the traditional family structure that More supported in her writings enabled women to 'be intelligent, rational, virtuous, and noble creatures, capable of great intellectual and moral achievements. They had the potential for immense influence on their husbands and sons, on their relations, their servants, and the poor.' More held, therefore, … 'the ideal of rational domesticity helped to liberate the individual within a supportive family framework.”
“…mischief, …arises not from our living in the world, but from the world living in us; occupying our hearts, and monopolizing our affections.”
“…evangelicals were instrumental in advancing the ideal of companionate marriage, one built on shared faith and mutual affection, a revolutionary notion in an era in which forced marriages were a not-so-distant memory.”
“When a man of sense comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint, and play, and sing, and draw, and dress, and dance; it is a being who can comfort and counsel him; one who can reason and reflect, and feel, and judge, and discourse, and discriminate; one who can assist him in his affairs, lighten his cares, sooth his sorrows, strengthen his principles, and educate his children.” – Hannah More”
“The topic was eloquence, something Christians had been conflicted about since the first-century church when Paul wrote that in bringing the gospel, he did not come with “eloquence.” A few centuries later, Saint Augustine wrestled with the value of eloquence, associating it with his pagan background and training in Greek rhetoric while simultaneously employing it winsomely in his Christian writings. Such suspicion of beauty and form, whether in art, literature, speech, or human flesh, has shadowed Christian thought throughout the history of the church; sadly so, considering God is the author of all beauty.”
Except where otherwise noted, all rights reserved to the author(s) of this book (mentioned above). The content of this page serves solely as promotional material for the aforementioned book. If you enjoyed these quotes, you can support the author(s) by acquiring the full book from Amazon.
Book Keywords:
education, beauty, equal-but-different, lord-byron, thinking, sin-nature, mutual-respect, god, companionship, idealism, critics, conviction, femininity, expectations, gods-work, literature, complementarianism, french-revolution, creator, family-stucture, author, fear-of-progress, immortality, family, marriage, learning, brokeness, worldy-pleasure, individual, female-education, roles, disappointment, female, maturity, tools, human-body, standards, influence, reading, ideas, gracefulness, anti-education, inherent-evil, men, giving-up, evangelicals, william-hazlitt, female-empowerment, worldliness, humanity, romanticism, bluestocking, society, shocking-criticism, heart, grace, shocking, aging, women, st-augustine, affection, writer, gods-power, need, equality, apostle-paul, dissatisfaction, creator-of-beauty, seasons, old-fashioned-ideas, christianity, samuel-taylor-coleridge, intelligence, speech, romantic-era, anti-female-education, hannah-more, art, change, forced-marriage, knowledge, gender, culture, suspicion, fame, consistency
