No new sect ever had humor; no disciples either, even the disciples of Christ.

One must go through periods of numbness that are harder to bear than grief.

Duration is not a test of truth or falsehood.

the final lesson of learning to be independent - widowhood ... is the hardest lesson of all.

Go for a short walk in a soft rain - lovely - so many wild flowers startling me through the woods and a lawn sprinkled with dandelions, like a night with stars. And through it all the sound of soft rain like the sound of innumerable earthworms stirring in the ground.

No American can understand the need for time -- that is, simply space to breathe. If you have ten minutes to spare you should jam that full instead of leaving it -- as space around your next ten minutes. How can anything ripen without those 'empty' ten minutes?

To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own.