A story to me means a plot where there is some surprise... Because this is how life is full of surprises.

All that God does is for the good.

The genuine writer cannot ignore the fact that the family is losing its spiritual foundation.

In God's mill even chaff becomes flour.

If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet... [at least for your own situation. Blind optimism is just as foolish. The solution is a rigorously balanced, rational outlook.]

Two important things are to have a genuine interest in people and to be kind to them. Kindness, I've discovered, is everything.

I have heard from my father and mother all the answers that faith in God could offer to those who doubt and search for the truth. In our home and in many other homes the eternal questions were more actual than the latest news in the Yiddish newspaper. In spite of all the disenchantments and all my skepticism I believe that the nations can learn much from those Jews, their way of thinking, their way of bringing up children, their finding happiness where others see nothing but misery and humiliation.