Caroline Healey Dall

"Influence follows close upon the heels of character; and whatever we are, that we shall in the end be acknowledged to be."

"There is, between the sexes, a law of incessant reciprocal action, of which God avails himself in the constitution of the family, when He permits brothers and sisters to nestle about the same hearthstone. Its ministration is essential to the best educational results. Our own educational institutions should rest upon this divine basis."

"I have seen no Hindu who seemed to me prepared intellectually and morally for the freedom he would find in American society; nor are Americans prepared for the air of innocence and exaltation worn by very undeserving Orientals."

"Let us candidly confess our indebtedness to the needle. How many hours of sorrow has it softened, how many bitter irritations calmed, how many confused thoughts reduced to order, how many life-plans sketched in purple!"

"Let woman once reject the absurd notion that she was created for happiness, let her constitute herself instead a creator of it, let her accept with joy the fact that this is a working-day world; then she will no longer strive to escape from labor, discipline, or sorrow, but will gladly hail each in its turn as part of God's appointed teaching, a shadow crossing the sunshine to show that it is bright."

"I cannot help directing your attention to the significant fact that while the word "mistress," applied to a woman, serves at once to mark her out for reprobation, there is no corresponding term which, applied to man, produces the same effect; and this because the interests of the state are still paramount to the interests of the soul itself."

"We claim for women a share of the educational opportunities offered to man, because we believe that they will never be thoroughly taught until they are taught at the same time and in the same classes."

"Woman is quick to recognize genius, to listen when wisdom speaks. She chatters, to be sure, in the presence of fools; but when earnest men come to know the value of her enthusiasm, they will never be willing to lose it."

"I thought I knew how corrupt modem society could be; but I did not know how unsoundness had darted to its very core till I began to read law, and to understand the estimate which that puts upon women and chastity."

"Let a neatness as exquisite as womanly, and as polished as that of Charlotte Brontë, pervade not only our homes, but consecrate our own personal appearance; then may we safely wear the livery of the schools."