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Science Quote by Elizabeth Blackwell

"I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart"

About this Quote

Restlessness, here, isn’t romanticized as a mood; it’s treated as a medical emergency of the spirit. Blackwell frames idleness as a kind of internal erosion: a “vacuum” that doesn’t just feel empty but actively grinds you down, “wearing away of the heart” like chronic inflammation. The diction is tellingly practical. She doesn’t ask for comfort, or even happiness. She asks for an “object in life” and something to “engross” the mind - language of work, focus, and disciplined attention. The emotional need is real, but the remedy is procedural.

The subtext is a shrewd awareness of what happens when a person with ambition is denied legitimate outlets. For a 19th-century woman, especially one drawn to science and medicine, the vacuum wasn’t metaphysical; it was engineered by social constraint. Blackwell’s sentence carries the quiet defiance of someone refusing the era’s sanctioned occupations of waiting, mourning, and self-abnegation. She doesn’t merely want distraction. She wants a calling strong enough to crowd out the slow violence of purposelessness.

It also smuggles in a bracing theory of survival: the heart isn’t protected by sentiment but by directed thought. That’s why the line works. It turns an intimate confession into an argument for vocation - not as self-branding, but as ballast. In Blackwell’s world, having an “object” isn’t a luxury; it’s the difference between enduring and disappearing.

Quote Details

TopicMeaning of Life
SourceHelp us find the source
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Blackwell, Elizabeth. (2026, January 17). I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-must-have-something-to-engross-my-thoughts-some-70391/

Chicago Style
Blackwell, Elizabeth. "I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-must-have-something-to-engross-my-thoughts-some-70391/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I must have something to engross my thoughts, some object in life which will fill this vacuum, and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-must-have-something-to-engross-my-thoughts-some-70391/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 - May 31, 1910) was a Scientist from USA.

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