Never having failed, I could not picture what failure meant.

- Nellie Bly

I always had a desire to know asylum life more thoroughly - a desire to be convinced that the most helpless of God's creatures, the insane, were care…

- Nellie Bly

The insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.

- Nellie Bly

What a mysterious thing madness is. I have watched patients whose lips are forever sealed in a perpetual silence. They live, breathe, eat; the human …

- Nellie Bly

I was too impatient to work at the usual duties assigned women on newspapers.

- Nellie Bly

ENERGY RIGHTLY APPLIED CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING.

- Nellie Bly

It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.

- Nellie Bly

How can a doctor judge a woman's sanity by merely bidding her good morning and refusing to hear her pleas for release? Even the sick ones know it is …

- Nellie Bly

'VERY WELL,' I SAID ANGRILY, 'START THE MAN, AND I'LL START THE SAME DAY FOR SOME OTHER NEWSPAPER AND BEAT HIM.'

- Nellie Bly