“She can endure pain and loss without any trouble, but she doesn't know how to react facing happiness.”

“A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.”

“Many men admire strong women but they don't love them. Some women succeed at being strong and also tender, but most of those who have intended to walk alone, making their own way, have lost their happiness.”

“Dresses that are truly beautiful are never unfashionable.”

“Women dress alike all over the world: they dress to be annoying to other women.”

“Eating well gives a spectacular joy to life and contributes immensely to goodwill.”

“How strange and unnatural destiny is. I married a man eight years younger than myself, and according to the law of nature I should have been the first to die, with Him at my side. Instead, it was my destiny to witness His death.' In speaking of Giuseppe, she always wrote Him, with a capital letter. Her style was prolix, repetitive, but with a certain academic nobility; and her handwriting was elongated, fine, even elegant. (However, in her final decline, her letters grew shorter and her written words, all shaky and twisted, groped across the page, uncertain of their direction.)”