“In some measure [may it] tend to make Sunday a pleasant day to children. May it help to teach them to praise God, the Father, Son, and Spirit; to contemplate life and death and their own hearts as Christians should”

Her hope that poetry would form young minds in faith and contemplation · Preface, The Sunday Book of Poetry

• Children
• Education
• Faith

“literary sacrilege—sacrilege against the dead in that which was best and noblest of them”

Her vehement view that unauthorised changes to hymns violate the author's sacred intent · Conversation (as recorded by William Alexander)

• Art
• Integrity
• Respect

“You see what I wanted to say is just so and so, not something else.”

Her firm stance against well-meaning editorial alterations to her hymns · Conversation (as recorded by William Alexander)

• Art
• Integrity
• Principle

“Thank God! I do like to hear that.”

Her spontaneous response on learning her hymn had transformed a worldly man's life · Conversation (as recorded by William Alexander)

• Faith
• Gratitude
• Joy

“I have not attempted to write down to the children, but to write up to them.”

Expressing her respect for children’s spiritual and intellectual capacity · Preface to Hymns for Little Children (1848)

• Childhood
• Faith
• Poetry