“Although the many virtues that courtesans possessed were employed to defy circumstances, the role they played depended on the same circumstances over which they triumphed- conditions which to, fortunately for modern women, no longer exist.”

“Human nature is so constituted that the propensity for evil is always intensified by external circumstances, and the morality of the individual depends much more on the conditions of his existence and the environment in which he lives than on his own will. ”

“Many undoubtedly owe their good fortune to the circumstance that they possess a pleasing smile with which they win hearts. Yet these hearts would do better to beware and to learn from Hamlet's tables that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”

“The world in which you live is not primarily determined by outward conditions and circumstances but by the thoughts that habitually occupy your mind.”

“I do not mean to imply that outside circumstances or other people do not play a role in our lives. Certainly, many factors influence the conditions we experience. But if we focus our attention solely upon those factors, we feed a spirit of fear and uncertainty regarding our future.”

“Without attempting any systematic employment of time, and carrying it out, so far as they control circumstances, most women are rather driven along by the daily occurrence of life; so that, instead of being the intelligent regulators of their own time, they are the mere sport of circumstances.”