. . . is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race?

I want to be a free rover on the breezy common of the universe.

[On being deaf:] How much less pain there is in calmly estimating the enjoyments from which we must separate ourselves, of bravely saying, for once and for ever, 'Let them go,' than in feeling them waste and dwindle, till their very shadows escape from our grasp!

The instruction furnished is not good enough for the youth of such a country ... There is not even any systematic instruction given on political morals: an enormous deficiency in a republic.

It never enters the lady's head that the wet-nurse's baby probably dies.

[On being deaf:] We must struggle for whatever may be had, without encroaching on the comfort of others.

It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.