I suppose books mean more than people to me anyway

It is not merely enough to have the ability to be persistant, you must also have the ability to start over.

He had seen me several times, and had intended to call on me long before, but a peculiar combination of circumstances had prevented it.

Nicole's world had fallen to pieces, but it was only a flimsy and scarcely created world; beneath it her emotions and instincts fought on.

Now the standard cure for one who is sunk is to consider those in actual destitution or physical suffering—this is an all-weather beatitude for gloom in general and fairly salutary day-time advice for everyone. But at three o’clock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesn’t work—and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

You seem to take things so personally, hating people and worshipping them--always thinking people are so important--especially yourselves. You just ask to be kicked around. I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it--on the inside.

one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty−one that everything afterward savors of anti−climax.