Is there nowhere in an American house where one may be by one's self?

An education is like a crumbling building that needs constant upkeep with repairs and additions.

One of the surprises of her unoccupied state was the discovery that time, when it is left to itself and no definite demands are made on it, cannot be trusted to move at any recognized pace

To know when to be generous and when firm—that is wisdom.

Ah, good conversation - there's nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.

We shall hurt others less. Isn't it, after all, what you always wanted?

One can remain alive ... if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity interested in big things and happy in small ways.