Harriet Beecher Stowe

From the pages of Wikipedia we discover:

Harriet Elizabeth Beecher Stowe (June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American abolitionist and novelist, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) attacked the cruelty of slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential, even in Britain. It made the political issues of the 1850s regarding slavery tangible to millions, energizing anti-slavery forces in the American North. It angered and embittered the South. The impact is summed up in a commonly quoted statement apocryphally attributed to Abraham Lincoln. When he met Stowe, it is claimed that he said, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war!"

Here are a few quotes that are attributed to her:

Any mind that is capable of real sorrow is capable of good.

Friendships are discovered rather than made.

All serious daring starts from within.

Human nature is above all things lazy.

I did not write it. God wrote it. I merely did his dictation.

I would not attack the faith of a heathen without being sure I had a better one to put in its place.

In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.

Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.

No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man.

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.

The past, the present and the future are really one: they are today.