“There is, perhaps, no employment which the human mind will with so much avidity pursue, as the discovery of concealed passion, as the tracing the varieties and progress of a perturbed soul.”

She names hidden passion as the true subject of tragedy · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Drama
• Mind
• Passion

“I am unwilling to quit the world and leave them behind me in their unconnected state, or to leave the trouble of collecting and correcting them to another.”

A practical farewell to her own scattered verses · Preface, Fugitive Verses, 1840

• Order
• Responsibility
• Writing

“I have to thank it, for that kind of reception which is best calculated to make a work go on well—praise mixed with a considerable portion of censure.”

She valued mixed criticism as healthier than unmixed praise · To the Reader, Plays on the Passions, volume two, 1802

• Criticism
• Humility
• Writing