Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem or saying a prayer.

Rivers perhaps are the only physical features of the world that are at their best from the air.

Only when a tree has fallen can you take the measure of it. It is the same with a man.

I had the feeling . . . that my experience was very different from other people’s. (Are we all under this illusion?)

The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now.

Woman's normal occupations in general run counter to creative life, or contemplative life, or saintly life.

Woman must come of age by herself... She must find her true center alone.