endurance of inescapable sorrow is something which has to be learned alone. And only to endure is not enough. Endurance can be a harsh and bitter root in one's life, bearing poisonous and gloomy fruit, destroying other lives. Endurance is only the beginning. There must be acceptance and the knowledge that sorrow fully accepted brings its own gifts. For there is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.

Sooner or later the young always betrayed the old.

Yet there were times when he did love her with all the kindness she demanded, and how was she to know what were those times? Alone she raged against his cheerfulness and put herself at the mercy of her own love and longed to be free of it because it made her less than he and dependent on him. But how could she be free of chains she had put upon herself? Her soul was all tempest. The dreams she had once had of her life were dead. She was in prison in the house. And yet who was her jailer except herself?

Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame.

Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.

when the people of any country choose peace at all costs, not even generals can make war.

If I have learned anything in my long life it is to be grateful for every occasion when I followed my sympathies and avoided my antipathies.