Maria Mitchell

The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power!

The Southern character is opposed to haste. Safety is of more worth than speed, and there is no hurry.

The greatest object in educating is to give a right habit of study.

The best that can be said of my life so far is that it has been industrious, and the best that can be said of me is that I have not pretended to what I was not.

Small aids to individuals, large aid to masses.

People have to learn sometimes not only how much the heart, but how much the head, can bear.

I would as soon put a girl alone into a closet to meditate as give her only the society of her needle.

I was born, for instance, incapable of appreciating music.

I made observations for three hours last night, and am almost ill today from fatigue; still I have worked all day, trying to reduce the places, and mean to work hard again tonight.

I am just through with a summer, and a summer is to me always a trying ordeal.

I am always the better for open-air breathing, and was certainly meant for the wandering life of the Indian.

Altogether, St. Louis is a growing place, and the West has a large hand and a strong grasp.

A young sailor boy came to see me today. It pleases me to have these lads seek me on their return from their first voyage, and tell me how much they have learned about navigation.

Yesterday I had a Shaker visitor, and today a Catholic; and the more I see and hear, the less do I care about church doctrines.

I saw, in looking over Cooper, elements of a comet of 1825 which resemble what I get out for this, from my own observations, but I cannot rely upon my own.

Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

I have never been in any country where they did not do something better than we do it, think some thoughts better than we think, catch some inspiration from heights above our own.

The love of one's own sex is precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor retained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere.

I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment.

I have worn myself thin trying to find out about this comet, and I know very little now in the matter.