Only a mother knows a mother's fondness.

I am in perfect health, and hear it said I look better than ever I did in my life, which is one of those lies one is always glad to hear.

I have all my life been on my guard against the information conveyed by the sense of hearing -- it being one of my earliest observations, the universal inclination of humankind is to be led by the ears, and I am sometimes apt to imagine that they are given to men as they are to pitchers, purposely that they may be carried about by them.

I believe more follies are committed out of complaisance to the world, than in following our own inclinations.

'Tis a sort of duty to be rich, that it may be in one's power to do good, riches being another word for power.

There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.

My health is so often impaired that I begin to be as weary of it as mending old lace; when it is patched in one place, it breaks out in another.