But this tree in the yard-this tree that men chopped down...this tree that they built a bonfire around, trying to burn up it's stump-this tree lived! It lived! And nothing could destroy it.

I wrote about people who liked fake fireplaces in their parlor, who thought a brass horse with a clock embedded in its flank was wonderful.

Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.

Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words.

The world was hers for the reading.

There are very few bad people. There are just a lot of people that are unlucky.

In teaching your child, do not forget that suffering is good too. It makes a person rich in character.

It is a good thing to learn the truth one's self. To first believe with all your heart, and then not to believe, is good too. It fattens the emotions and makes them to stretch.

People always think that happiness is a faraway thing … something complicated and hard to get. Yet, what little things can make it up.

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.

Let me be something every minute of every hour of my life...And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.

Whenever they met, the air crackled and sparks flew in the sky.

These three ladies disliked and distrusted one another as heartily as the First Triumvirate of Rome, and their close alliance was probably for the same reason.

All authors go to heaven

He'd say most kids were made of sugar and spice, but his Kylee was made of pancakes.

Courage is the standing army of the soul which keeps it from conquest, pillage, and slavery.

Studs Lonigan, on the verge of fifteen, and wearing his first suit of long trousers, stood in the bathroom with a Sweet Caporal pasted on his mug.

Your destiny is too great, your assignment too important, your time too valuable. Don't let fear intimidate you.

I think it's fair to say that Nina Simone was a prodigy.

I can't have a big breakfast or a big lunch because I get very lethargic, and then I get really cranky. I eat, but I have to eat small, healthful amounts of food.

If you want to get the body you've always dreamed of, you have to earn it.