And what little she allowed herself to say was said in a strained tone, in which her ingrained timidity paralysed her tendency to freedom and audacity of speech.

... Error, by force of contrast, enhances the triumph of Truth...

When one feels oneself smitten by love for a woman, one ought to say to oneself, “What are her surroundings? What has been her life? All one’s future happiness lies in the answer.

... there was no need for him to hasten towards the attainment of a happiness already captured and held in a safe place, which would not escape his grasp again.

... the idea that 'Life' contains situations more interesting and more romantic than all the romances ever written.

Why did you not forget your heart also? I should never have let you have that back." ...

... the courage of one's opinions is always a form of calculating cowardice in the eyes of the 'other side'...

... rejoicing in a peace which brings only an increase of anxiety, ...

She [Mme des Laumes] belonged to that half of the human race in whom the curiosity the other half feels about the people it does not know is replaced by an interest in the people it does.

One felt that in her renunciation of life she had deliberately abandoned those places in which she might at least have been able to see the man she loved, for others where he had never trod.

Presently, one after another, like shyly hopping sparrows, her friends arrived, black against the snow.

You know what they say, Queenie: ALWAYS bet like you have a pair.

The beast way of avoiding mistakes is doing nothing

The first thing I did [in Michigan] was join a picket line of a pizzeria in Ann Harbor in 1963 that didn't allow African Americans to eat there.

At first I didn't dig country.

A son is a son 'til he gets a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all her life.

This is pretty much the answer to every problem you encounter in suburbia: plant a tree, and hope you don't see anyone's privates.

Maybe my pain was my motivation.

Hatred and anger are powerless when met with kindness.

I think one day I want to be on the other side of the camera-maybe directing

You can expect what you inspect.