A parting is sadder than a death, Ma always said, for two people are dead to one another and yet go on living.

a heart may be lifted up and cast down in the same moment, as sometimes sunshine comes while rain is falling and builds upward in the sky tall reaches of misty, unlikely beauty.

Mouths talk without authority sometimes.

A parting is sadder than a death, Ma always said, for two people are dead to one another and yet go on living.

a mother-in-law's praise says more in a woman's favor than anything else in the world.

Pity makes a thin drink, indeed.