“Is goodness, then, incompatible with the enjoyment of the senses?”

Challenging the sentimental ideal of female self-denial and passionlessness · Column as Lady Correspondent, Daily Alta California, c. 1856

• Pleasure
• Virtue
• Women

“You feel as I do about age—I am not old at the core, I wont have it, why do people think so, if they must as I do, see so—I hate my looks absolutely.”

Defying outward ageing while acknowledging the wisdom that comes with years · Letter to Julia C. Dorr, 8 July 1896

• Age
• Self
• Wisdom

“Intellect has no sex.”

Asserting the gender-neutrality of intellectual capacity against patronising praise · Column as Lady Correspondent, Daily Alta California, 30 March 1856

• Equality
• Gender
• Intelligence