I had had my night of weeping...I had purged myself of useless emotions that terrible night, now every nerve every sinew, every thought was bent on a single purpose

Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.

Is is difficult to be angry with a gentleman who pays you compliments, even impertinent compliments. Especially impertinent compliments.

I do not scruple to employ mendacity and a fictitious appearance of female incompetence when the occasion demands it.

The approval of a cat cannot but flatter the recipient.

I had refused Emerson's well-meant offers of assistance, knowing his efforts would be confined to moving the furniture to the wrong places and demanding how much longer the process would take.

love has a very dulling effect on the brain

I have learned that particularly clever ideas do not always stand up under close scrutiny.

He hesitated for a moment. Then he said softly, "I love you, Mother." He took my hand and kissed it, and folded my fingers round the stem of the rose. He had stripped it of its thorns.

The way to get on with a cat is to treat it as an equal - or even better, as the superior it knows itself to be.

In the silence I heard Bastet, who had retreated under the bed, carrying on a mumbling, profane monologue. (If you ask how I knew it was profane, I presume you have never owned a cat.)

The more you do for people, the less grateful they become, but don’t let that deter your sincere spirit of giving.

The truth is, I feel myself being fascinated and repelled by her: She's both a mirror of myself and a door to part of this island that I'm not.

As I understand it, a universe is a ... well, a totality. A universe is everything that is, as far as the inside of the thing.

I'm a natural ham. It doesn't bother me to perform.

Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote.

Although I've watched myself making the transition from being a girl to being a woman, I still feel 15 years old. My reflection disagrees.

When problems confront successful leaders, they get excited about the opportunity.

Often I feel I go to some distant region of the world to be reminded of who I really am.

All temptations can be handled easily when we know how, because no temptation is a temptation at all unless we are entertaining it.