Please don’t think so lightly of liking someone. It’s terribly important. It is a kind of loving, you know, and one that frequently lasts a lot longer than romance. You can fall out of love,...

People only tell lies when the truth is disagreeable to them, or frightens them, or to cover sin.

It was not something you could call friendship; it was at once less and more. The sharing of such experiences created a bond and set them apart from all others. It was not something that...

That was the worst truth of all: alone. The word was a kind of death.

Fear does different things to people. Some run away. Some go forward to meet it before it’s there.

Sometimes we bring to a struggle or cause the gifts we see most clearly, a courage, a strength, or a charm others have told us we have. But often we find more is asked of...

Disillusion in an ache that eats into the dreams of goodness, of love, of any value that matters – even to the very belief in life.

To take for granted one’s blessings is a damage to the soul, and in time one will lose them, simply from lack of care. One should never tire of nourishing and treasuring all that is...

The truth can be very sharp. But it makes a cleaner wound than lies. It will not fester

How quickly a moment sinks into the past.

People lie to cover their mistakes, and then make even worse ones to cover their lies.

Your own gown is most delicately suitable, both to the occasion and to yourself,’ to be translated: Your gown is insipid and entirely forgettable. If you wear it on every other occasion this entire season,...

He was perfectly capable of looking after himself, although after his marriage he had lost the knack for it. He missed the comfort of all the small things Charlotte did for him,but these were nothing...

You wanted a peaceful, comfortable Christmas, with all reminders of poverty, injustice, or other people’s griefs well out of sight, so as not to disturb your pleasure. That isn’t what Christmas is about, Wallace. Christmas...

She taught me,’ said Ta-thea, ‘that if you do not have couragem all other virtues may be lost, because you cannot keep even love if you are not prepared to fight for it, to endure...

You can like people and still betray them, if it was for a cause you believed in passionately enough. You have to betray other people rather than betray yourself–if that’s what it comes to.

Sometimes when we are drowning in our own loss we lash out–anger is momentarily easier to cope with.

I don’t expect answers from anyone. The most I ever hope for is that here and there one may find someone who at least acknowledges the question!

What is the use of knowing everything, if you never actually practise it? They are forever cooking and never eating

…perhaps great sins start as simple weakness, and the consistent placing of self before others.