At sixty I look back on a life of deep disappointments, of withered hopes, of unlooked for suffering, of severe discipline.

Good and evil, as we term them, are not antagonistic; they are ever found hand in hand. Humanity has never achieved a single conquest without the aid of both. Indeed how can she? What adds to moral strength, but a grappling with temptation?

I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their cooperation.

I ask no favors for my sex, I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God has designed us to occupy.

I am persuaded that the rights of woman, like the rights of slaves, need only be examined to be understood and asserted.

[On the Adam and Eve story:] They both fell from innocence, and consequently from happiness, but not from equality.

At sixty I look back on a life of deep disappointments, of withered hopes, of unlooked for suffering, of severe discipline.