Misfortune had made Lily supple instead of hardening her, and a pliable substance is less easy to break than a stiff one.

In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.

Archer had always been inclined to think that chance and circumstance played a small part in shaping people's lots compared with their innate tendency to have things happen to them.

The value of books is proportionate to what may be called their plasticity -- their quality of being all things to all men, of being diversely moulded by the impact of fresh forms of thought.

And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities.

Most timidities have such secret compensations and Miss Bart was discerning enough to know that the inner vanity is generally in proportion to the outer self depreciation.

My last page is always latent in my first; but the intervening windings of the way become clear only as I write.