Pride may go before a fall, but jealousy goes before destruction.

Christmas is a kindling of new fires.

My general attitude toward life when I first get up is of deep suspicion, verging on hatred. ... I am simply basted together until after breakfast.

Perhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone. It is good to listen, not to voices but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen. If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity. And then, in some unexplained way, we share it with others.

Traveling is all very well if you can get home at night. I would be willing to go around the world if I came back in time to light the candles and set the table for supper.

Old houses, I thought, do not belong to people ever, not really, people belong to them.

When Father smiled, it was like the sun coming out, and spring and summer in your heart.