Margaret Fuller

It is astonishing what force, purity, and wisdom it requires for a human being to keep clear of falsehoods.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.

Reverence the highest, have patience with the lowest. Let this day's performance of the meanest duty be thy religion. Are the stars too distant, pick up the pebble that lies at thy feet, and from it learn the all.

What I mean by the Muse is that unimpeded clearness of the intuitive powers, which a perfectly truthful adherence to every admonition of the higher instincts would bring to a finely organized human being. It may appear as prophesy or as poesy…should these faculties have free play, I believe they will open up new, deeper and purer sources of joyous inspiration than have as yet refreshed the earth.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.