"...or if we worship a god, is not that god a devil?"

"Let us eat, drink, and love, for tomorrow we die, would be, in fact, the language of reason, the morality of life; and who but a fool would part with a reality for a fleeting shadow?"

"...and the understanding of the sex is so bubbled by this specious homage, that the civilized women of the present century, with a few exceptions, are only anxious to inspire love, when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition and by their abilities and virtues exact respect."

"In the government of the physical world it is observable that the female in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of women. A degree of physical superiority cannot therefore be denied-- and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavor to sink us still lower, the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society."

"My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinatinggraces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone."

"How then can the great art of pleasing be such a necessary study? It is only useful to a mistress; the chaste wife, and serious mother, should only consider her power to please as the polish of her virtues, and the affection of her husband as one of the comforts that render her task less difficult and her life happier.--But, whether she be loved or neglected, her first wish should be to make herself respectable and not to rely for all her happiness on a being subject to like infirmities with herself."

"I shall stop a moment to deliver, in a few words, my opinion.--In the government of the physical world it is observable that the femal in point of strength is, in general, inferior to the male. This is the law of nature; and it does not appear to be suspended or abrogated in favor of women. A degree of physical superiority cannot, therefore, be denied--and it is a noble prerogative! But not content with this natural pre-eminence, men endeavor to sink us still lower, merely to render us alluring objects for a moment; and women, intoxicated by the adoration which men, under the influence of their senses, pay them, do not seek to obtain a durable interest in their hearts, or to become the friends of the fellow creatures who find amusement in their society."

"That a proper education; or, to speak with more precision, a well stored mind, would enable a woman to support a single life with dignity, I grant; but that she should avoid cultivating her taste, lest her husband should occasionally shock it, is quitting a substance for a shadow. To say the truth, I do not know of what use is an improved taste, if the individual be not rendered more independent of the casualties of life; if new sources of enjoyment, only dependent on the solitary operations of the mind, are not opened."

"Women subjected by ignorance to their sensations, and only taught to look for happiness in love, refine on sensual feelings, and adopt metaphysical notions respecting that passion; which lead them shamefully to neglect the duties of life, and frequently in the midst of these sublime refinements they plump into actual vice."

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