Blessings be the inventor of the alphabet, pen and printing press! Life would be -- to me in all events -- a terrible thing without books.

Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back?

People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?

That's the worst…or the best…of real life, Anne. It won't let you be miserable. It keeps on trying to make you comfortable…and succeeding…even when you're determined to be unhappy and romantic.

Satirize wickedness if you must--but pity weakness.

I wouldn't want to marry anybody who was wicked, but I think I'd like it if he could be wicked and wouldn't.

Isn't it better to have your heart broken than to have it wither up? Before it could be broken it must have felt something splendid. That would be worth the pain.