“What a pity it is that one can't have a separate language with which to address each beloved one!”

Wondering whether ordinary language can express the individuality of different loves · Letter to Mrs. Humphrey, 1 April 1871

• Friendship
• Language
• Love

“I love you harder than I tell, or can tell you.”

A characteristically warm admission that affection exceeds the power of language · Letter to Miss Anna S. Prentiss, Richmond

• Friendship
• Language
• Love

“It seems to me that the sound of my six little feet is the very pleasantest sound in the world.”

Finding intense happiness in the ordinary sounds of family life · Letter to a sister-in-law, 15 January 1864

• Family
• Happiness
• Home

“Holiness is not a mere abstraction; it is praying and loving and being consecrate, but it is also the doing kind deeds, speaking friendly words.”

Defining spiritual life through ordinary acts of kindness as well as devotion · Letter to Miss E. S. Gilman, 29 April 1871

• Faith
• Kindness
• Work

“Yet somebody must look out for the drops, and I am only too thankful to seize on this one.”

Defending small acts of compassion even when confronted by overwhelming need · Letter to a friend, 17 March 1856

• Community
• Compassion
• Kindness

“We live in a mystery, and shall never be satisfied till we see Him as He is.”

Acknowledging the limits of human understanding in matters of faith · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 2 May 1876

• Faith
• Knowledge
• Mystery

“Let us take our lot in life just as it comes, courageously, patiently, and faithfully.”

Advocating courage and patience in accepting life's circumstances · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 14 February 1877

• Courage
• Faith
• Patience

“The true story of my life will never be written. But whatever you do, don't envy it.”

A candid warning against idealising another person's outward life · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 14 February 1877

• Life
• Suffering
• Truth

“We must touch each other with the tips of our fingers.”

Recognising how tenderness and restraint matter when dealing with vulnerable hearts · Letter to a young relative, 23 September 1873

• Care
• Compassion
• Love

“To love Christ more—this is the deepest need, the constant cry of my soul.”

A concise expression of the spiritual longing that shaped her life and writing · Letter to a young relative, 23 September 1873

• Faith
• Longing
• Love

“Perhaps in the time of our humiliation, when everything seems a failure, we are making the best kind of progress.”

Suggesting that unseen growth may occur precisely when progress seems absent · Letter to a friend in Texas, 1 December 1873

• Growth
• Humility
• Perseverance

“God never places us in any position in which we can not grow.”

Seeing difficult circumstances as opportunities for inward growth · Letter to a friend in Texas, 1 December 1873

• Faith
• Growth
• Perseverance

“Whatever may be said to the contrary by others, to me life has been a battle-field, and I believe always will be; but is the soldier necessarily unhappy because he is fighting?”

Separating struggle from unhappiness and finding purpose within difficulty · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 7 November 1875

• Courage
• Life
• Struggle

“Experience of life has been my chief earthly teacher, and one gains that every day.”

Valuing lived experience as a continuing source of wisdom · Letter to Mrs. George Payson, 31 October 1875

• Experience
• Learning
• Wisdom

“Much of my experience of life has cost me a great price, and I want to use it for the strengthening and comforting of other souls.”

Turning hard-won experience into consolation for others · Letter to Mrs. Condict, 7 November 1875

• Compassion
• Consolation
• Experience

“Above all, you go to a great school for self-knowledge.”

Making self-understanding the highest purpose of education · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Education
• Knowledge
• Mind

“For taste, for discrimination, for mental courage, and for mental soberness.”

Summing up the qualities of mature and disciplined judgement · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Courage
• Education
• Wisdom

“For the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation.”

Valuing intellectual sympathy alongside a willingness to accept correction · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Criticism
• Learning
• Mind

“But you go to a great school not so much for knowledge as for arts and habits.”

Presenting education as the formation of intellectual habits rather than simple fact-gathering · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Education
• Learning
• Skill

“Nor need you regret the hours you spent on much that is forgotten, for the shadow of lost knowledge at least protects you from many illusions.”

Suggesting that forgotten learning can still shape judgement and understanding · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Knowledge
• Learning
• Wisdom

“At school you are engaged not so much in acquiring knowledge as in making mental efforts under criticism.”

Distinguishing education from the mere accumulation of information · Essay, Eton Reform II, 1861

• Criticism
• Education
• Learning

“The Guild within two years has arrived at the point in its development where it sees itself in relation to all artists, black and white.”

Presenting artistic solidarity as something capable of reaching beyond racial boundaries · Essay, The Harlem Artists Guild, 1937

• Art
• Community
• Society

“Few of us know that the art of the African Negro is the basic foundation of all the new schools of art in Europe.”

Arguing strongly for recognition of African art's influence on European modernism · Essay, The Future of the Negro in Art, 1924

• Art
• Culture
• Influence

“I knew anybody could go to camp in the sunshine.”

Finding humour and adventure in setting out despite unpromising circumstances · Essay, I Go to Camp, 1934

• Experience
• Humour
• Nature