I hesitated for all the right reasons. And I accepted for all the wrong ones.

If one has a purpose, life is bearable enough, do you not think so?

Life is too uncertain... You must seize happiness where you find it.

You are curious and quick, you have a deft mind, and for some unaccountable reason, people tell you things -- useful things.

But this is a thing that I know--to live with fear is not to live at all. A man will die every moment he is afraid.

When the wind is right and the cloud is gone, you can see down this road as far as Darjeeling," I told her. "But it is a long and difficult road, full of perils, and if a traveller on foot were to look at the length of it, his spirit would be overcome and he would sit down and refuse to go any further. You must not look to the end of the road, Portia. Look only to the step in front of you. That you can do. Just one step. And you will not make the journey alone.

She left me then, surrounded by my extravagantly simple finery and I sat for a long time, uncomfortable both with the person I had been and the person I was finally becoming. Caught between the two of them, I felt rather lonely, as one often does with a new acquaintance.