Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.

I often think flowers are the angels' alphabet whereby they write on hills and fields mysterious and beautiful lessons for us to feel and learn.

Have your fun, my dear; but if you must earn your bread, try to make it sweet with cheerfulness, not bitter with the daily regret that it isn't cake.

But please hug and kiss me, everyone, and don't mind my dress, I want a great many crumples of this sort put into it today.

Persuasive influences are better than any amount of moralizing.

…to the inspiration of necessity, we owe half the wise, beautiful, and useful blessings of the world.

I can get on with wild beasts first-rate; but men rile me awfully.