It is a terrible thing to be angry with the dead.

She had been born in the days when children were taught to venerate the aged, but she had lived long enough to learn that she could count upon no respect from the young.

No one is forever occupied with sorrow, and there is a kind of gaiety that goes hand in hand with sorrow. Sorrow stands aside for a while to make room for mirth, and then steps forward to take her victim in a stronger grip. It was like that with me.

She saw, more or less, how the whole thing had happened, for she had the gift – which is often a doubtful blessing – of being able to see the other person’s point of view, of being able to put herself in the other person’s place.

Barbara returned the pressure. “It’s turned out all right after all,” she said contentedly. “Things usually do, somehow. You worry and fuss and try to make things go the way you think they should, and then you find that the other way was best. I’m going to try not to worry about things anymore.

Knowledge is less hard to bear than ignorance if you possess an imagination.

He put down the paper without regret, and looked at his wife, and, as he looked at her, he smiled because she was nice to look at, and because he loved her, and because she amused and interested him enormously. They had been married for nine months now, and sometimes he thought he knew her through and through, and sometimes he thought he didn’t know the first thing about her – theirs was a most satisfactory marriage.

Someday, she was convinced, somebody would find out that she was an imposter in the adult world.

I was not alone in my experience – not alone anymore. The mere fact that another had walked where I was walking made the path easier for my feet.

I never really thought or believed in my bones that the book would be published. I just finished it and sent it up – ” “And why to me?” inquired Mr. Abbott with much interest. “I mean why did you send the book to me? Perhaps you had heard from somebody that our firm – ” “Oh, no,” she exclaimed. “I knew nothing at all about publishers. You were the first on the list – alphabetically – that was all.” Mr. Abbott was somewhat taken aback – on such trifles hang the fates of bestsellers!