At school boys become gluttons and slovens, and, instead of cultivating domestic affections, very early rush into the libertinism which destroys the constitution before it is formed; hardening the heart as it weakens the understanding.

Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time.

An immoderate fondness for dress, for pleasure, and for sway, are the passions of savages; the passions that occupy those uncivilized beings who have not yet extended the dominion of the mind, or even learned to think with the energy necessary to concatenate that abstract train of thought which produces principles.... that women from their education and the present state of civilized life, are in the same condition, cannotbe controverted.

Men and women must be educated, in a great degree, by the opinions and manners of the society they live in.

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural date is often pernicious and always useless.

True happiness must arise from well-regulated affections, and an affection includes a duty.