Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions.

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

you have to love life to have life, and you need to have life to love life

Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.

Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.

[Dona Maria] saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.