This land was an enigma. It was like a horse that no one knows how to break to harness, that runs wild and kicks things to pieces.

Sometimes a neighbor whom we have disliked a lifetime for his arrogance and conceit lets fall a single commonplace remark that shows us another side, another man, really; a man uncertain, and puzzled, and in the dark like ourselves.

The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing — desire.

It is easy to pity when once one's vanity has been tickled.

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

In great misfortunes, people want to be alone. They have a right to be. And the misfortunes that occur within one are the greatest. Surely the saddest thing in the world is falling out of love--if once one has ever fallen in.

If [the writer] achieves anything noble, anything enduring, it must be by giving himself absolutely to his material. And this gift of sympathy is his great gift; is the fine thing in him that alone can make his work fine.