Date: 1787

"They [the Indians] will crayon out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the existence of a germ in their minds which only wants cultivation."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: 1787

"This will in some measure stop the increase of this great political and moral evil, while the minds of our citizens may be ripening for a complete emancipation of human nature."

— Jefferson, Thomas (1743-1826)

Date: 1787

"The young man comparing the conduct, speeches, and pursuits of his father with those of other men, the one watering the rational part of his soul, and the others the concupiscible and irascible, he delivers up the government within himself to a middle power, that which is irascible and fond of c...

— Adams, John (1735-1826)

Date: 1793

"For her own child, all the feelings of a parental bosom vegetated in luxuriance."

— Anonymous [By an American Lady]

Date: 1793

"Mrs. Leason has one child, blessed with good natural abilities, and educated by a less indulgent parent, she might have shone in a domestic character, but when the idea is instilled in the youthful mind, that it is to be indulged in all its wishes, let the disposition be ever so pleasing, the so...

— Anonymous [By an American Lady]

Date: 1793

"If the mind is a barren waste, of what avail are the beauties of the most lovely face, the elegance of the most enchanting shape, the grace of the most accomplished person; the imperceptible hand of time will deprive them of every external charm, and eclipse the lustre of the most penetrating eye."

— Anonymous [By an American Lady]

Date: August 31, 1837

"A strange process too, this, by which experience is converted into thought, as a mulberry leaf is converted into satin."

— Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

Date: August 31, 1837

"The new deed is yet a part of life, — remains for a time immersed in our unconscious life. In some contemplative hour, it detaches itself from the life like a ripe fruit, to become a thought of the mind."

— Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882)

Date: 1935

"Not I, to whom the scraggly, unpruned emotions of many modern poets seem almost indecenly luxurious."

— North, Jessica Nelson (1891-1988)

Date: 1960

"Different persons growing up in the same language are like different bushes trimmed and trained to take the shape of identical elephants."

— Quine, W. V. O. (1908-2000)