I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and temper can stand any attack on it.

Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.

Women, like men, must be educated with a view to action, or their studies cannot be called education.

Marriage ... is still the imperfect institution it must remain while women continue to be ill-educated, passive, and subservient.

You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.

The imagination, once awakened, must and will work, and ought to work

My own feeling of concern arises from seeing how much moral injury and suffering is created by the superstitions of the Christian mythology.

It is hard to tell which is worse; the wide diffusion of things that are not true, or the suppression of things that are true.

it matters infinitely less what we do than what we are.

I saw no poor men, except a few intemperate ones. I saw some very poor women; but God and man know that the time has not come for women to make their injuries even heard of.

Happiness consists in the full employment of our faculties in some pursuit.

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.

And then I did what I had never done in his presence, much less in his arms. I cried.

that a child is not an event, alleged or otherwise, a mistake or accident or crime. . . he is by definition more than this, sum rather than division, a living promissory note.

I have a very happy marriage and friends who keep my feet on the ground. But looking for satisfaction in life is difficult. Maybe being happy is as simple as not being unhappy.

Until I went to rehab, I didn't understand what it did.

There are some exceptions: Chicago, my hometown, in particular. But overall in the country this is a much safer place than it used to be.

You know how I feel about you, Bluefur. I'd do my best to make you happy, I promise. And I'll love your kits as though they were my own.

If I actually ran the world, I'd do it from the kitchen. It's not anything deliberate or a statement or anything, that's just how I understand things. It's arranged along informal lines.

In the silence between your heartbeat bides a summons. Do you hear it? Name it if you must, or leave it forever nameless, but why pretend it is not there?

I have my own life. And I am stronger than you know.