A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn't tell it like it was, you told it like you thought it should have been.

All my life I've been lonely. I've been lonely at crowded parties. I've been lonely in the middle of kissing a girl and I've been lonely at camp with hundreds of fellows around. But now I'm not lonely any more.

Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants. I'll have a desk like this in my parlor and white walls and a clean green blotter every Saturday night and a row of shining yellow pencils always sharpened for writing and a golden-brown bowl with a flower or some leaves or berries always in it and books . . . books . . . books. . . .

In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.

I can never give a 'yes' or a 'no.' I don't believe everything in life can be settled by a monosyllable.

Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.

From that moment on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again.