Lucy Larcom Quotes

Powerful Lucy Larcom for Daily Growth

About Lucy Larcom

Lucy Larcom (1824-1893), an American poet and novelist, was born on February 6, 1824, in Lowell, Massachusetts. Known as the 'Poetess of the Factory,' Larcom's life and work were deeply influenced by her experiences in the textile mills during the Industrial Revolution. Larcom's formal education was limited due to financial constraints, but she was an avid reader and self-taught writer. She began working in the Lowell Mill Girls' Boarding House at age 15, where she honed her writing skills by contributing to the mill's newspaper and socializing with other workers who shared a love for literature. In 1845, Larcom published her first collection of poetry, "A Woman's Life in the Mills," which offered insight into the hardships faced by millworkers. This was followed by "The Prison Door: And Other Poems" (1869), a collection that included some of her most famous works like 'The Last Leaf,' 'The Wide, Wide World,' and 'The Old Mansion.' After leaving the mills in 1845, Larcom moved to Boston where she became involved in the women's suffrage movement. She co-founded the New England Woman's Club and was a frequent contributor to the "Atlantic Monthly." In 1876, at the age of 52, Larcom published her first novel, "A New England Girlhood," based on her own experiences growing up in Lowell. The book was a critical success and is considered one of the first autobiographical novels written by an American woman. Larcom's work provides a unique perspective on women's issues during the Industrial Revolution and continues to be celebrated for its honesty, beauty, and social relevance. She died in Boston on February 29, 1893.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"I have been studying the faces of men all my life, and I have yet to see one that I did not know."

This quote suggests that Lucy Larcom had a keen ability to read and understand people based on their facial expressions or appearances. She implies that she has gained significant knowledge and wisdom about human nature throughout her lifetime by observing the faces of men (and, by extension, women). It underscores the importance of empathy, observation, and understanding in our interactions with others.


"Home is the place where one's heart is."

The quote by Lucy Larcom, "Home is the place where one's heart is," emphasizes that home isn't just a physical location; it's a feeling of belonging, comfort, and emotional attachment. It underscores the idea that home transcends the bricks and mortar structure, and can be any place where we feel a strong emotional connection or sense of security and love.


"To be content with what you have is wealth."

This quote by Lucy Larcom highlights the importance of being satisfied with one's possessions, circumstances, or life in general as a form of true wealth. It suggests that material wealth is not the only measure of success or happiness, but rather, contentment with what we already have can bring us a sense of inner peace and fulfillment. This perspective invites us to focus on gratitude and appreciation for our current blessings, rather than constantly striving for more, encouraging a simpler, more mindful way of life.


"The world is wide and I will wander in it."

This quote by Lucy Larcom expresses a sense of freedom, curiosity, and adventure. It suggests that life offers countless opportunities for exploration and personal growth, and the speaker is eager to embrace this vast world with an open heart and mind. The phrase "wander" implies a meandering journey without a fixed destination or plan, allowing for spontaneity, discovery, and unexpected encounters along the way. In essence, it's about daring to step outside one's comfort zone, seize opportunities, and make the most of life's boundless possibilities.


"For each new morning with its light, For rest and sense of right, Let every heart prepare a song, And with the melody, A pulse of love to go."

This quote by Lucy Larcom emphasizes the daily renewal and opportunities for positivity that each new day brings. The "light" and "rest" symbolize the fresh start we are given each morning, a chance to find inner peace and clarity. The phrase "sense of right" suggests personal integrity and doing what is morally correct. The call to prepare a song signifies expressing gratitude, joy, or love through our actions and words. Lastly, the "pulse of love" refers to the compassion, kindness, and empathy we should infuse in our interactions with others, making each day more meaningful and harmonious.


The first real unhappiness I remember to have felt was when some one told me, one day, that I did not love God. I insisted, almost tearfully, that I did; but I was told that if I did truly love Him I should always be good. I knew I was not that, and the feeling of sudden orphanage came over me like a bewildering cloud.

- Lucy Larcom

Love, I Remember, Some, Unhappiness

From the first opening of our eyes, it is the light that attracts us. We clutch aimlessly with our baby fingers at the gossamer-motes in the sunbeam, and we die reaching out after an ineffable blending of earthly and heavenly beauty which we shall never fully comprehend.

- Lucy Larcom

Beauty, Die, Comprehend, Earthly

Whether rich or poor, a home is not a home unless the roots of love are ever striking deeper through the crust of the earthly and the conventional, into the very realities of being, not consciously always; seldom, perhaps; the simplicity of loving grows by living simply near nature and God.

- Lucy Larcom

Love, Home, Through, Earthly

What is the meaning of 'gossip?' Doesn't it originate with sympathy, an interest in one's neighbor, degenerating into idle curiosity and love of tattling? Which is worse, this habit, or keeping one's self so absorbed intellectually as to forget the sufferings and cares of others, to lose sympathy through having too much to think about?

- Lucy Larcom

Love, Through, About, Sufferings

Like a plant that starts up in showers and sunshine and does not know which has best helped it to grow, it is difficult to say whether the hard things or the pleasant things did me the most good.

- Lucy Larcom

Grow, Hard Things, Which, Showers

Whoever claims to understand another person completely, is either entirely ignorant of himself, or else has a nature so small that he can measure it easily, and supposes it to be the standard of every other nature.

- Lucy Larcom

Small, Other, Standard, Claims

If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.

- Lucy Larcom

Inspirational, World, Warm, Fires

A journal of the 'subjective' kind I have always thought foolish, as nurturing a morbid self -consciousness in the writer; and yet, alone so much as I am, it is well to have some sort of a ventilator from the interior.

- Lucy Larcom

Some, Always, Subjective, Foolish

To different minds, poetry may present different phases. To me, the reverent faith of the people I lived among, and their faithful everyday living, was poetry; blossoms and trees and blue shies were poetry. God himself was poetry.

- Lucy Larcom

Living, May, Reverent, Blossoms

No one can feel more gratefully the charm of noble scenery, or the refreshment of escape into the unspoiled solitudes of nature, than the laborer at some close in-door employment.

- Lucy Larcom

Nature, Some, Refreshment, Employment

I remember how beautiful the Merrimac looked to me in childhood, the first true river I ever knew; it opened upon my sight and wound its way through my heart like a dream realized; its harebells, its rocks, and its rapids, are far more fixed in my memory than anything about the sea.

- Lucy Larcom

Memory, I Remember, Through, Fixed

Religion is life inspired by Heavenly Love; and life is something fresh and cheerful and vigorous.

- Lucy Larcom

Love, Inspired, Vigorous, Cheerful

Our relatives form the natural setting of our childhood. We understand ourselves best and are best understood by others through the persons who came nearest to us in our earliest years.

- Lucy Larcom

Childhood, Natural, Through, Relatives

Everything in nature has its own intrinsic charm, as the work of its Creator's hand; but the chief beauty of the whole lies in its suggested relations to humanity. Things announce and wait for persons. The house would not have been thus beautifully built and furnished, except for an expected tenant.

- Lucy Larcom

Beauty, Wait, Been, Relations

Every phase of our life belongs to us. The moon does not, except in appearance, lose her first thin, luminous curve, nor her silvery crescent, in rounding to her full. The woman is still both child and girl, in the completeness of womanly character.

- Lucy Larcom

Woman, Completeness, Curve, Luminous

If the world's a veil of tears, Smile till rainbows span it.

- Lucy Larcom

Smile, World, Tears, Span

The curse of covetousness is that it destroys manhood by substituting money for character.

- Lucy Larcom

Money, Character, Curse, Manhood

A complete autobiography would indeed be a picture of the outer and inner universe photographed upon one little life's consciousness. For does not the whole world, seen and unseen, go to the making up of every human being?

- Lucy Larcom

Life, Autobiography, Whole, Making Up

A friend is a beloved mystery; dearest always because he is not ourself, and has something in him which it is impossible for us to fathom. If it were not so, friendship would lose its chief zest.

- Lucy Larcom

Always, Dearest, Which, Fathom

The true idea of a church has not yet been shown the world, a visible Church, I mean, unless it was in the very earliest times; yes, the twelve disciples bound to their Lord in love, to do his work forever, that was a church, a Christian family.

- Lucy Larcom

Love, Been, Very, Disciples

Some of us must wait for the best human gifts until we come to heavenly places. Our natural desire for musical utterance is perhaps a prophecy that in a perfect world we shall all know how to sing.

- Lucy Larcom

Wait, Perfect, Some, Perfect World

Few parents are aware of the difficulties that beset the minds of the little philosophers and theologians who sit upon their knees or play at their feet; and many a parent could not comprehend the disturbance, if he were aware of it.

- Lucy Larcom

Feet, Play, Comprehend, Philosophers

We were not meant to mask ourselves before our fellow-beings, but to be, through our human forms, true and clear utterances of the spirit within. Since God gave us these bodies, they must have been given us as guides to Him and revealers of Him.

- Lucy Larcom

Through, Been, Before, Forms

The soul, cramped among the petty vexations of Earth, needs to keep its windows constantly open to the invigorating air of large and free ideas: and what thought is so grand as that of an ever-present God, in whom all that is vital in humanity breathes and grows?

- Lucy Larcom

Soul, Thought, Air, Petty

I am willing to make any part of my life public, if it will help others.

- Lucy Larcom

My Life, Will, Willing, Help Others

Let us not depreciate Earth. There is no atom in it but is alive and astir in the all-penetrating splendor of God. From the infinitesimal to the infinite, everything is striving to express the thought of His Presence with which it overflows.

- Lucy Larcom

Alive, Splendor, Which, Presence

One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. It is a great deal better not to write more than a page or two, unless you have something to say, and can write it correctly.

- Lucy Larcom

Mistake, Think, Deal, Great Deal

Rich or poor, every child comes into the world with some imperative need of its own, which shapes its individuality.

- Lucy Larcom

Need, Some, Which, Individuality

It is one of the most beautiful facts in this human existence of ours, that we remember the earliest and freshest part of it most vividly. Doubtless it was meant that our childhood should live on in us forever.

- Lucy Larcom

Childhood, Part, Meant, Doubtless

God be thanked for the thinkers of good and noble thoughts! It wakes up all the best in ourselves, to come into close contact with others greater and better in every way than we are.

- Lucy Larcom

Best, Thoughts, Thinkers, Wakes

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