She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last.

The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.

People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find.

That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.

The trouble is you almost have to marry a man before you can find out the sort of wife he needs; and usually it's exactly the sort you are not.

The great fact in life, the always possible escape from dullness, was the lake. The sun rose out of it, the day began there; it was like an open door that nobody could shut. The land and all its dreariness could never close in on you. You had only to look at the lake, and you knew you would soon be free.

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