Laws and customs may be creative of vice; and should be therefore perpetually under process of observation and correction: but laws and customs cannot be creative of virtue: they may encourage and help to preserve it; but they cannot originate it.

Marriage ... is still the imperfect institution it must remain while women continue to be ill-educated, passive, and subservient.

Authorship has never been with me a matter of choice. I have not done it for amusement, or for money, or for fame, or for any reason but because I could not help it.

I romanced internally about early death till it was too late to die early.

Goodness and simplicity are indissolubly united.-The bad are the most sophisticated, all the world over, and the good the least.

For my own part, I had rather suffer any inconvenience from having to work occasionally in chambers and kitchenthan witness the subservience in which the menial class is held in Europe.

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.