a person who was clever ought to be clever enough not to be unjust or deliberately unkind to anyone.

To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in, you may never get over it as long as you live.

She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of and what you do.

She liked books more than anything else, and was, in fact, always inventing stories of beautiful things and telling them to herself.

If I go on talking and talking...and telling you things about pretending, I shall bear it better. You don't forget, but you bear it better.

And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.

It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.