Children will grow up substantially what they are by nature--and only that.

Whipping and abuse are like laudanum: you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline.

One of the greatest reforms that could be, in these reforming days ... would be to have women architects. The mischief with the houses built to rent is that they are all male contrivances.

A man builds a house in England with the expectation of living in it and leaving it to his children; we shed our houses in America as easily as a snail does his shell.

Most mothers are instinctive philosophers.

The pain of discipline is short, but the glory of the fruition is eternal.

No ornament of a house can compare with books; they are constant company in a room, even when you are not reading them.