You don’t need scores of suitors. You need only one… if he’s the right one.

The female population exceeds the male, you know, especially in New England, which accounts for the high state of culture we are in, perhaps.

…marriage, they say, halves one's rights and doubles one's duties.

The duty we owe ourselves is greater than that we owe others.

…what splendid dreams young people build upon a word, and how bitter is the pain when the bright bubbles burst.

Don't cry so bitterly, but remember this day, and resolve with all your soul that you will never know another like it.

Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said men, but I said babies. Men are often bad, but babies never are.