Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“Every kind of creature is developed by the exercise of its functions. If denied the exercise of its functions, it can not develop in the fullest degree.”

“There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. As well speak of a female liver.”

“The labor of women in the house, certainly, enables men to produce more wealth than they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses.”

“Here she comes, running, out of prison and off the pedestal; chains off, crown off, halo off, just a live woman.”

“It is not that women are really smaller-minded, but that their minds have been accustomed to deal with smaller things.”

“The first duty of a human being is to assume the right functional relationship to society — more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.”

“A house does not need a wife any more than it needs a husband.”

“And woman should stand beside man as the comrade of his soul, not the servant of his body.”

“When all is said and done, a good life is not so much a matter of circumstance as of inner character.”

“Until 'mothers' earn their livings, 'women' will not.”

“Death? Why this fuss about death? Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! Death is the essential condition of life, not an evil.”

“To be surrounded by beautiful things has a decidedly moral influence.”

“In a sick society, women who have difficulty fitting in are not ill but demonstrating a healthy and positive response.”

“To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.”

“Art is not a thing; it is a way.”