there's no such thing as luck. Nothing ever just happens to anybody. ... nothing can really happen to a person till he lets it happen.

The actions of a human being, even of fifteen months of age, may not be without significance to a sympathetic eye.

There is no human relationship more intimate than that of nurse and patient, one in which the essentials of character are more rawly revealed.

Everyone bowed to that unwritten law of family life which ordains that, in the long run, everyone submerges his personal preference in the effort to conform to that of the member of the circle who complains most loudly and is most difficult to satisfy.

...there are two ways to meet life; you may refuse to care until indifference becomes a habit, a defensive armor, and you are safe - but bored. Or you can care greatly, live greatly, until life breaks you on its wheel.

the most elementary experience of life proves that the effects of compulsion last exactly as long as the physical or moral club can be applied.

A mom isn't an individual to lean on, but a person to generate leaning needless.