The past ... is a dim avenue down which we may walk and find the diverging paths of terror and beauty and passion.

Growing old was simply a process of drawing closer to that ultimate independence called death.

a man can break God's laws and be forgiven. That's what they teach us. But when he breaks Nature's laws, there's no forgiveness - and there's no escape. Sooner or later he pays the penalty, or his children pay it - or his children's children. It doesn't matter much. It must be paid.

You have stirred the soil with your plow, my friend. It will never be the same again.

It's remarkable - most remarkable, the way these people manage, from time to time, a tragedy or a near-tragedy to break the even tenor of their ways,' said Mr. Tingley, in a tone of half-humorous superiority, by which he considered that he distinguished himself, subtly and inoffensively, from 'these people.

Here and there on the branch of an oak a congress of leaves still clung, rigid as flakes of bronze.

Ah, life, life, how madly, how cruelly it raced along your pulses!