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.

Books became her friends, and there was one for every mood.

Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.

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

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

There's a tree that grows in Brooklyn. Some people call it the Tree of Heaven. No matter where its seed falls, it makes a tree which struggles to reach the sky. It grows in boarded-up lots and out of neglected rubbish heaps. It grows up out of cellar gratings. It is the only tree that grows out of cement. It grows lushly . . . survives without sun, water, and seemingly without earth. It would be considered beautiful except that there are too many of it.

And always, there was the magic of learning things.