Katharine Fullerton Gerould

Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879-1944) was an American writer, born in Brockton, Massachusetts, and educated at Radcliffe College.

She was a reader in English at Bryn Mawr, 1901-10. Mrs. Gerould was criticized as weighing down a distinct literary talent with an unbending conservatism, which though it did not attract the masses, had a coterie of faithful admirers. In addition to many articles in magazines she published:

  • Vain Obligations (1914)
  • The Great Tradition (1915)
  • Hawaii, Scenes and Impressions (1916)
  • A Change of Air (1917)
  • Modes and Morals (1919), a collection of essays
  • Valiant Dust (1923), a collection of short stories

Famous quotes by katharine fullerton gerould:

    Science has done great things for us; it has also pushed us hopelessly back. For, not content with filling its own place, it has tried to supersede everything else. It has challenged the super-eminence of religion; it has turned all philosophy out of doors except that which clings to its skirts; it has thrown contempt on all learning that does not depend on it; and it has bribed the skeptics by giving us immense material comforts.
    Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)

    ... when you make it a moral necessity for the young to dabble in all the subjects that the books on the top shelf are written about, you kill two very large birds with one stone: you satisfy precious curiosities, and you make them believe that they know as much about life as people who really know something. If college boys are solemnly advised to listen to lectures on prostitution, they will listen; and who is to blame if some time, in a less moral moment, they profit by their information?
    Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)

    No convention gets to be a convention at all except by grace of a lot of clever and powerful people first inventing it, and then imposing it on others. You can be pretty sure, if you are strictly conventional, that you are following genius—a long way off. And unless you are a genius yourself, that is a good thing to do.
    Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)

    The principle of fashion is ... the principle of the kaleidoscope. A new year can only bring us a new combination of the same elements; and about once in so often we go back and begin again.
    Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)

    ...I cannot conceive a more odious society than one where nothing is considered indecent or impious.
    Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)