Hannah Webster Foster

“Elaine Partnow (ed.) The Quotable Woman: From Eve to 1799 (1985), p. 636”

“It is by surmounting difficulties, not by sinking under them, that we discover our fortitude. True courage consists not in flying from the storms of life; but in braving and steering through them with prudence. Avoid solitude. It is the bane of a disordered mind; though of great utility to a healthy one.”

“Can you, who have always been used to serenity and order in a family, to rational, refined, and improving conversation, relinquish them, and launch into the whirlpool of frivolity, where the correct taste and the delicate sensibility which you possess must constantly be wounded by the frothy and illiberal sallies of licentious wit?”

“The mind, after being confined at home for a while, sends the imagination abroad in quest of new treasures; and the body may as well accompany it.”

“He is a gay man, my dear, to say no more; and such are the companions we wish when we join a party avowedly formed for pleasure.”

“You ask me, my friend, whether I am in pursuit of truth, or a lady? I answer, both. I hope and trust they are united; and really expect to find truth and the virtues and graces besides in a fair form.”

“An unusual sensation possesses my breast — a sensation which I once thought could never pervade it on any occasion whatever. It is pleasure, pleasure, my dear Lucy, on leaving my paternal roof.”