“You're making yourself too important. Guilt comes from feeling we're at the center of the universe. We're not.”

“I looked forward to making friends at school, but I had come late and friendships had already been formed. I couldn’t find my way into their world. They seemed to have a secret code I couldn’t decipher.”

“I thought I understood what was best. I knew too little and believed too soon.”

“But will you not have a house to care for? Meals to cook? Children whining for this or that? Will you have time for the work?" "I'll make time," I promised. "The house will not always be so clean, the cooking may be a little hasty, and the whining children will sit on my lap and I'll sing to them while I work.”

“I have qualms and wonder what a qualm would look like if you painted it -- probably like a bowl of melting ice cream or a dish of Jell-o just before it sets.”

“With a mind as bright as yours you will want to find a proper school to continue your education. ..... You must continue the education your mother began. Young women must have an education.”

“They were all brilliant. They wrote books and painted pictures, and if they ever stopped talking, which I was sure they would never do, they planned to change the world.”