It does not matter much whom we live with in this world, but it matters a great deal whom we dream of.

Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement.

Youth, art, love, dreams, true-heartedness - why must they go out of the summer world into darkness?

"More than him has done that," said Antonia sadly, and the girls murmured assent.

Sometimes," I ventured, "it doesn't occur to boys that their mother was ever young and pretty. . . I couldn't stand it if you boys were inconsiderate, or thought of her as if she were just somebody who looked after you. You see I was very much in love with your mother once, and I know there's nobody like her.

There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.

A watch is the most essential part of a lecture.