“The only good thing about being frightened half to death, she thought, is that it makes me forget all about being seasick.”

“She couldn't avoid being serious about things she cared for, and happiness made her grave at the thought of all the things which might destroy it.”

“You know the thing that burns me most about being a kid?...The worst thing about being a kid is that people twice my size with half my brains get to run my life.—Zoë”

“The good thing about being old is not being young.”

“Aunt Helen Beck had many intentions about her death. She was about being dead the way some people are about being British - she wasn't, and it seemed she would never be, but it was clearly something she aspired to, since all the people she respected were.”

“He seemed happy. She thought that she seldom concerned herself about Laurence’s being happy. She wanted him to be in a good mood, so that everything would go smoothly, but that was not the same thing.”