“It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.”

“One ought not to judge her: all children are Heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb high trees and say shocking things and leap so very high grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.) Some small ones are terrible and fey, Utterly Heartless. Some are dear and sweet and Hardly Heartless At All. September stood very generally in the middle on the day the Green Wind took her, Somewhat Heartless, and Somewhat Grown.”

“Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by heart and his friends can only read the title.”

“And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices in the lost lilac and the lost sea voices and the weak spirit quickens to rebel for the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell quickens to recover.”

“It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself.”

“She had known ever since she feltthe miracle of his heart quickening in her,it would end the way it began: her armsgathering his hurt body again and againinto her indigo mantle, the shield of her lovebringing the world to complete silence.”