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Dorothea Dix Quotes

Nurse

Dorothea Dix was an American nurse and social reformer who dedicated her life to improving the conditions of the mentally ill. Born on April 4, 1802, and passing away on July 17, 1887, Dix's work had a profound impact on the treatment of mental health in the United States.

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All Men Cold Compassion Crime Humanity Ifs Insane Made Stills Abandoned

Famous Dorothea Dix Quotes

“in proportion as my own discomfort has increased, my conviction of necessity to search into the wants of the friendless and afflicted has deepened. If I am cold, they too are cold; if I am weary, they are distressed; if I am alone, they are abandoned.”

Ifs Want My Own Compassion Cold Conviction Proportion Abandoned Weary Discomfort Friendless

Author:Dorothea Dix

“[To a woman who claimed she'd rather be dead than unconfined and unfashionable:] My dear, if you continue to lace as tightly as you do now, you will not long have the privilege of choice. You will be both dead and out of fashion.”

Ifs Long Choices Fashion Dear Privilege Lace

Author:Dorothea Dix

“Of all the calamities to which humanity is subject, none is so dreadful as insanity. ... All experience shows that insanity seasonably treated is as certainly curable as a cold or a fever.”

Shows Humanity Subjects Cold Illness Treated Mental Illness Insanity Calamity Fever

Author:Dorothea Dix

“Be of good cheer, for sadness cannot heal the national wounds.”

Sadness Wounds Heal Cheer Good Cheer

Author:Dorothea Dix

“Every evil has its good, and every ill an antidote.”

Evil Ill Antidote

Author:Dorothea Dix

“I come to present the strong claims of suffering humanity. I come to place before the Legislature of Massachusetts the condition of the miserable, the desolate, the outcast. I come as the advocate of helpless, forgotten, insane men and women; of beings sunk to a condition from which the unconcerned world would start with real horror.”

Men World Real Suffering Humanity Strong Conditions Horror Men And Women Claims Forgotten Insane Miserable Helpless Legislature Outcast Asylums Massachusetts Desolate Unconcerned

Author:Dorothea Dix

“I think even lying on my bed I can still do something.”

Thinking Stills I Can Lying Bed

Author:Dorothea Dix

“Man is not made better by being degraded; he is seldom restrained from crime by harsh measures, except the principle of fear predominates in his character; and then he is never made radically better for its influence.”

Men Made Character Principles Influence Crime Harsh

Book:Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States

Source: Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States

“Society, during the last hundred years, has been alternately perplexed and encouraged, respecting the two great questions -how shall the criminal and pauper be disposed of, in order to reduce crime and reform the criminal on the one hand, and, on the other, to diminish pauperism and restore the pauper to useful citizenship?”

Years Has Beens Two Hands Lasts Order Crime Hundred Criminals Reform Citizenship Diminish Perplexed

Author:Dorothea Dix

“The tapestry of history has no point at which you can cut it and leave the design intelligible.”

Cutting Society Design No Point Tapestry

Author:Dorothea Dix

“Man is not made better by being degraded.”

Men Made

Book:Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States

Source: Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States

“Brains are still unfashionable for women to wear, and it has always been proof of women's superiority that the more intelligent a man is, the more women admire him, while the bigger fool a woman is, the more men run after her.”

Men Stills Running Brain Fool Bigger Intelligent Proof Admire Superiority

Author:Dorothea Dix

“But the truth is the highest consideration.”

Truth Is Highest Consideration

Author:Dorothea Dix

“I have no particular love for my species, but own to an exhaustless fund of compassion”

Compassion Particular Species Fund

Author:Dorothea Dix

“I proceed, gentlemen, to call your attention to the present state of insane persons confined within the commonwealth; in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens; chained, naked, beaten with rods, and lashed into obedience.”

Persons States Attention Naked Insane Obedience Gentleman Pens Beaten Closets Cages Confined Commonwealth Chained Cellars Insane Person

Book:Memorial: To the Legislature of Massachusetts [protesting Against the Confinement of Insane Persons and Idiots in Almshouses and Prisons]

Source: Memorial: To the Legislature of Massachusetts [protesting Against the Confinement of Insane Persons and Idiots in Almshouses and Prisons]

“I have learned to live each day as it comes, and not to borrow trouble by dreading tomorrow.”

Worry Trouble Tomorrow Each Day I Have Learned Menace Live Each Day Anxiety And Worry

Author:Dorothea Dix

“A man usually values that most for which he has labored; he uses that most frugally which he has toiled hour by hour and day by day to acquire.”

Men Use Values Hours Acquire

Book:Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States

Source: Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United States

About the Author

Born: April 4, 1802
Died: July 17, 1887
Known for: Nurse
Quotes: 17

Books & Sources

Remarks on Prisons and Prison Discipline in the United StatesRelated source material

Memorial: To the Legislature of Massachusetts [protesting Against the Confinement of Insane Persons and Idiots in Almshouses and Prisons]Related source material

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