The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.

Who would endure life if it were not for the hope of death?

There is no use in loving things if you have to be torn from them, is there? And it's so hard to keep from loving things, isn't it?

Never be silent with persons you love and distrust," Mr. Carpenter had said once. "Silence betrays.

I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.

…I'm sorry, and a little dissatisfied as well. Miss Stacy told me long ago that by the time I was twenty my character would be formed, for good or evil. I don't feel that it's what it should be. It's full of flaws.' 'So's everybody's,' said Aunt Jamesina cheerfully. 'Mine's cracked in a hundred places. Your Miss Stacy likely meant that when you are twenty your character would have got its permanent bent in one direction or 'tother, and would go on developing in that line.

She looked like a head-on collision between a fashion plate and a nightmare.