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.

It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are in some degree independent of men.

The conduct of an accountable being must be regulated by the operations of its own reason.

Men with common minds seldom break through general rules. Prudence is ever the resort of weakness; and they rarely go as far as as they may in any undertaking, who are determined not to go beyond it on any account.

Children, I grant, should be innocent; but when the epithet is applied to men, or women, it is but a civil term for weakness.

The same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain would have rendered him useful in society, had that society been well organized.

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