We never can tell how our lives may work to the account of the general good, and we are not wise enough to know if we have fulfilled our mission or not.

I wish the women's rights folks would be more sensible. I think women have a great deal to learn, before they are fit to vote.

I often think that all the difficulties we encounter only give us the more strength if we keep hold of our work, and we must not now give up while in the prime of life. It is best to keep trying, and by and by the opportunity will come. If we have given up, then we shall not be ready for it when it does come.

A political place with no power, only influence, is not to my taste.

I prefer surveying for a week to spending a week in fashionable society even of the best class.

...all enjoyment is dependent upon the frailty of human life and human desires ... if we were to have all we want and to live forever, all enjoyment would be gone.

The Faculty [of Vassar] do not consider it a mere experiment any longer that girls can be educated as well as boys.