I think I love most people best when they are in adversity; for pity is one of my prevailing passions.

Good habits, imperceptibly fixed, are far preferable to the precepts of reason.

Make them free, and they will quickly become wise and virtous, as men become more so; for the improvement must be mutual, or the injustice which one half of the human race are obliged to submit to, retorting on their oppressors, the virtue of men will be worm-eaten by the insect whom he keeps under his feet

No man chooses evil because it's evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.

... the whole tenour of female education ... tends to render the best disposed romantic and inconstant; and the remainder vain and mean.

The absurd duty, too often inculcated, of obeying a parent only on account of his being a parent, shackles the mind, and prepares it for a slavish submission to any power but reason.

We cannot, without depraving our minds, endeavour to please a lover or husband, but in proportion as he pleases us.