Till society is very differently constituted, parents, I fear, will still insist on being obeyed because they will be obeyed, and constantly endeavor to settle that power on a divine right which will not bear the investigation of reason.

I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend. Make me happy, and I shall again be virtuous.

Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people!

The world was to me a secret which I desired to devine.

Happiness is in its highest degree the sister of goodness.

Truly disappointment is the guardian deity of human life; she sits at the threshold of unborn time, and marshals the events as they come forth.

My father was not scientific, and I was left to struggle with a child's blindness, added to a student's thirst for knowledge.