A girl, if she has any pride, is so ashamed of having anything she wishes to say out of the hearing of her own family, she thinks it must be something so very wrong, that it is ten to one, if she have the opportunity of saying it, that she will not. And yet she is spending her life, perhaps, in dreaming of accidental means of unrestrained communion.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Young women often hide their thoughts from family due to shame. They crave unrestricted communication but feel constrained by domestic expectations.
- In plain terms
- Girls hide their thoughts from family out of shame and wish to speak freely.
- What can you take from it?
- Fear of judgment stifles honest communication at home.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why do we feel shame about our inner thoughts?
- How can families create safer spaces for expression?
Another view
It generalizes the experience of all young women.
More from Florence Nightingale
It is very well to say 'be prudent, be careful, try to know each other.' But how are you to know each other? Unless a woman had lost all pride, how is it possi…
Permalink to quote #45 It is thought pretty to say that 'Women have no passion.' If passion is excitement in the daily social intercourse with men, women think about marriage much mo…
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Permalink to quote #44
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