[Ads-l] Quote: "I accept the universe" "Gad! she'd better!"

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Margaret Fuller usually receives credit for the line "I accept the
universe". Thomas Carlyle receives credit for "Gad! she'd better!"

"The New Yale Book of Quotations'' (NYBQ) notes that these two lines
appeared in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902) by William
James. NYBQ also points to a fantastic 1848 letter describing the
remarks of Fuller and Carlyle. The letter did not give a precise
quotation for Fuller, and the quotation for Carlyle was clumsy and
prolix. The information in the letter was apparently relayed from
Henry James Sr. to Parke Gowin to Evert Duyckinck who wrote the
letter.

NYBQ gives an 1893 citation for "I accept the universe" credited to
Margaret Fuller.

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/10/20/accept-universe/

The QI article presents an 1862 citation for "I accept the universe"
credited to Margaret Fuller in "The Ladies' Repository".

The earliest published citation I could find for a concise version of
Carlyle's line appeared in an 1881 article by Julia Ward Howe:

[Begin excerpt]
Margaret Fuller once said that she accepted the universe, and Carlyle
laughed heartily on hearing of it, and said, "I think she'd better."
But each of us has an attitude towards the universe. We partly accept
and partly make ourselves accepted by it.
[End excerpt]

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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