Oh, that's the beauty of the rose, that it blossoms and dies.

Of all the bewildering things about a new country, the absence of human landmarks is one of the most depressing and disheartening.

In this world people have to pay an extortionate price for any exceptional gift whatever.

Men are all right for friends, but as soon as you marry them they turn into cranky old fathers, even the wild ones.

I had killed a big snake. I was now a big fellow.

I was thinking, as I watched her, how little it mattered –about her teeth for instance. I know so many women who have kept all the things she had lost, *but whose inner glow has faded*. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of life.

He had been to see Mrs. Erlich just before starting home for the holidays, and found her making German Christmas cakes. She took him into the kitchen and explained the almost holy traditions that governed this complicated cookery. Her excitement and seriousness as she beat and stirred were very pretty, Claude thought. She told off on her fingers the many ingredients, but he believed there were things she did not name: the fragrance of old friendships, the glow of early memories, belief in wonder-working rhymes and songs.