The Cardinal ... It was as if a pulsing heart of flame passed by when he came winging through the orchard.

I don't so much mind the falling, but I do seem to select the hardest spots to light on.

To my way of thinking and working, the greatest service a piece of fiction can do any reader is to force him to lay it down with a higher ideal of life than he had when he took it up.

I write as the birds sing, because I must, and usually from the same source of inspiration.

We never know the timber of a man's soul until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong. You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture.

there was nothing in the whole world so dreadful as the power of riches wrongly used.

Is he well educated?" "Yes, I think so, as far as he's gone," I answered. "Of course he will go on being educated every day of his life, same as father. He says it is all rot about 'finishing' your education. You never do. You learn more important things each day.