God knows that a mother needs fortitude and courage and tolerance and flexibility and patience and firmness and nearly every other brave aspect of the human soul. But because I happen to be a parent of almost fiercely maternal nature, I praise casualness. It seems to me the rarest of virtues. It is useful enough when children are small. It is useful to the point of necessity when they are adolescents.

Ah, snug lie those that slumber Beneath Conviction's roof. Their floors are sturdy lumber, Their windows weatherproof. But I sleep cold forever And cold sleep all my kind, For I was born to shiver In the draft from an open mind.

Scratch any father, you find / Someone chock-full of qualms and romantic terrors, / Believing change is a threat.

It's hard / Keeping up with the avant-garde.

A lady is smarter than a gentleman, maybe, she can sew a fine seam, she can have a baby, she can use her intuition instead of her brain, but she can't fold a paper in a crowded train.

There are books that one needs maturity to enjoy just as there are books an adult can come on too late to savor.

Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy