A collection of quotes by Charlotte Perkins Gilman on feminism, society, women, equality, death, psychology, writing, gender, bias, age, youth and religion.
45 Inspiring Quotes By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Utopian Feminist
Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a distinguished American feminist, author, and social reformer. She was born in an affluent and highly influential Beecher family but she had a difficult childhood. She was part of a broken family and had to move around which affected her education. Gilman had faced a major post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter and went through a lot of difficulties as the society didn’t approve her disease. This experience inspired her short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” which turned to be the most eminent work of her life. She separated from her husband and moved to Pasadena where she actively organized social reform movements. She became a well-known lecturer, which constituted a major part of her income. Her career in lecturing gained a sudden boost when she started giving speeches on nationalism. Her feminist nature inspired a majority of her non-fiction books which encouraged women to be economically independent. Out of these books, the most noted one was ‘Women and Economics’, which solidified her position as a social theorist. She also served as a delegate and represented California in the ‘Suffrage Convention’ and ‘The International Socialist and Labor Congress’. We bring to you a compilation of most famous sayings and quotations by her which have been excerpted from her writings, thoughts, work and speeches. These revolutionary quotes and thoughts on feminism by Charlotte Perkins Gilman will enlighten you towards the much-needed equality by women.
It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and most women do not creep by daylight.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
There is no female mind. The brain is not an organ of sex. As well speak of a female liver.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Death? Why all this fuss about death? Use your imagination, try to visualize a world without death! Death is the essential condition to life, not an evil.
As for mother Eve - I wasn't there and can't deny the story, but I will say this. If she brought evil into the world, we men have had the lion's share of keeping it going ever since.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When all usefulness is over, when one is assured of an unavoidable and imminent death, it is the simplest of human rights to choose a quick and easy death in place of a slow and horrible one.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way — it is such a relief! But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.
This is the woman's century, the first chance for the mother of the world to rise to her full place . . . and the world waits while she powders her nose.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.
Woman" in the abstract is young, and, we assume, charming. As they get older they pass off the stage, somehow, into private ownership mostly, or out of it altogether.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Through it [literature] we know the past, govern the present, and influence the future.
I am glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dreadfully depressing. John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
They were inconveniently reasonable, these women.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something, while to secure it in this world we must do something.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Never in all her life had she imagined that this idolized millinery could look, to those who paid for it, like the decorations of an insane monkey.
I always liked that Arab saying, 'First tie your camel and then trust in the Lord,
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
(I would not say it to a living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, - to dress and entertain, and order things
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Most men’s eyes, when you look at them critically, are not like that. They may look at you very expressively, but when you look at them, just as features, they are not very nice.
John doesn't know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him.
It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weakness I suppose.
Those who too patiently serve as props sometimes underrate the possibilities of the vine.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
New York - that unnatural city where every one is an exile, none more so than the American
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
It is the strangest yellow, that wallpaper! It makes me think of all the yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yellow things.
I was madly in love with not so much what was there as with what I supposed to be there.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
John does not know how much I really suffer. He knows there is no REASON to suffer, and that satisfies him.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Woman should stand beside man as the comrade of his soul, not the servant of his body
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
But only this-that people who are utterly ignorant will believe anything-which you certainly knew before.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
And there was you - your fair self, always delicately dressed, with white firm fingers sure of touch in delicate true work. I loved you then.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
[The Yellow Wallpaper] was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
I always lock the door when I creep by daylight.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
When I see them knit,' Terry said, 'I can almost call them feminine.'
'That doesn't prove anything,' Jeff promptly replied. 'Scotch shepherds knit --always knitting.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The fact is I am getting a little afraid of John.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and because he loves me so.
