“It is not necessarily poverty of spirit that makes a woman surround herself with life—it can be a superabundance of interest...”

“Women are necessarily capable of almost anything in their struggle for survival and can scarcely be convicted of such man-made crimes as “cruelty.”

“and a Finnish woman, who made my bed and cooked breakfast and muttered Finnish wisdom to herself over the electric stove”

“She was incomprehensible, for, in her, soul and spirit were one - the beauty of her body was the essence of her soul. She was that unity sought for by philosophers through many centuries. In this outdoor waiting room of winds and stars she had been sitting for a hundred years, at peace in the contemplation of herself.”

“She smiled at him, making sure that the smile gathered up everything inside her and directed it toward him, making him a profound promise of herself for so little, for the beat of a response, the assurance of a complimentary vibration in him.”

“Often a man can play the helpless child in front of a woman, but he can almost never bring it off when he feels most like a helpless child.”

“interested, I mean, with that intense personal interest to which every one has some vague right at the end”