“It has been and still is, my strongest desire to add a few pieces to the stock of what may be called our national or permanently acting plays.”

A lifelong claim that her dramas were written for the stage, not the closet · To the Reader, Miscellaneous Plays, 1804

• Ambition
• Theatre
• Writing

“I consider myself as less of a sectarian than almost any one whom I am acquainted with.”

She presented scripture texts and left readers to judge for themselves · Letter on her New Testament pamphlet, c. 1831

• Faith
• Independence
• Religion

“This book then, does not hold out the allurement of novelty.”

She gathered scattered songs as old acquaintances rather than new wares · Preface, Fugitive Verses, 1840

• Memory
• Modesty
• Writing