Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.

It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love ... You can't own a human being.

I couldn't bear to have people mispronounce my name. But the person I was was this person who was called Chloe.

you got two feet, Sethe, not four." he said, and right then a forest sprang up between them; tactless and quiet.

For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.

To be given dominion over another is a hard thing; to wrest dominion over another is a wrong thing; to give dominion of yourself to another is a wicked thing.

Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this mission.