SARAH JOSEPHA HALE

Democracies have been, and governments called, free; but the spirit of independence and the consciousness of unalienable rights, were never before transfused into the minds of a whole people....The feeling of equality which they proudly cherish does not proceed from an ignorance of their station, but from the knowledge of their rights; and it is this knowledge which will render it so exceedingly difficult for any tyrant ever to triumph over the liberties of our country.

Democracies have been, and governments called, free; but the spirit of independence and the consciousness of inalienable rights, were never before transfused into the minds of a whole people.

Few individuals enter into public life who would not be wealthier and happier as private citizens—but then they would not be known, would not see their names in the newspaper, except for raising a curious calf or a mammoth cabbage.

I consider every attempt to induce women to think they have a just right to participate in the public duties of government as injurious to their best interests and derogatory to their character.

In a country where there is no privileged class, genius and industry may attain the highest honors.

Party spirit was ... and always will be, wherever indulged, the bane of society and good neighborhood.

Political controversies are never entered into with any wish to gain knowledge, but only a triumph for the party.

Shout freedom! and the talismanic word will open all the treasures of the soul.

The feeling of equality which they [Americans] proudly cherish does not proceed from an ignorance of their station, but from the knowledge of their rights; and it is this knowledge which will render it so exceedingly difficult for any tyrant ever to triumph over the liberties of our country.

It is necessary that all our people be instructed, as universal education is the main pillar that must eventually support the temple of liberty.

What a ready passport wealth gives its possessor to the good opinions of this world!

There is hardly a more heart-thrilling pleasure enjoyed by mortals, than that which parents feel when seeing their child first being able to 'catch knowledge of objects.

Do not, as you value the health and happiness of those who sit at your table, place before them hot leavened bread or biscuit.

Among those kinds of food which the good housekeeper should scrupulously banish from her table, is that of hot leavened bread....I believe it more often lays the foundation of diseases of the stomach, than any other kind of nourishment, used among us.

No influence is so powerful as that of the mother.

Water is the grand epic of creation; and there is not a human soul but feels the influence of its majesty, its power, or its beauty.

There is something in the decay of nature that awakens thought, even in the most trifling mind.

Oh, wondrous power! how little understood, Entrusted to the mother's mind alone, To fashion genius, form the soul for good, Inspire a West, or train a Washington.

Readers soon tire of prefaces, and skip them, and so the labor of writing them is lost.