Alice Duer Miller

“It's hard upon occasions to be forceful and sublimeWhen you're treated as incompetents three-quarters of the time.”

“Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger, but faces it head on”

“Conversation is a partnership, not a relation of master and slave, as most people try to make it.”

“People who deal in truth themselves recognize it when they hear it, just as people who deal in diamonds recognize a real stone when they see it.”

“It is among the commonplaces of education that we often first cut off the living root and then try to replace its natural functions by artificial means. Thus we suppress the child's curiosity and then when he lacks a natural interest in learning he is offered special coaching for his scholastic coaching for his scholastic difficulties.”

“People love to talk but hate to listen. Listening is not merely not talking, though even that is beyond most of our powers; it means taking a vigorous, human interest in what is being told us. You can listen like a blank wall or like a splendid auditorium where every sound comes back fuller and richer.”

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give values to survival.”