“What more does one ask of life, really, but to stagger from moment to moment with a reason to wake and wait for the next reason to wake?”

“The boy does well enough," said Vicente. "A goose does not ask much of life, after all.""No," she admitted. "Those who ask much are more likely disappointed. We should all be as simple as the goose.”

“Waking up was a daily cruelty, an affront, and she avoided it by not sleeping.”

“The truth isn't a thing of fact or reason. It is simply what everyone agrees on.”

“Every choice brings wisdom in its wake. If you got to have the wisdom first, it wouldn't be a choice--just policy”

“To consider what other people might say is hardly a good reason to take action or to defer it. You have your own life to live, Iris, and at its end, the only opinion that amounts to anything is that which God bestows”

“Galinda didn't see the verdant world through the glass of the carriage; she saw her own reflection instead. She had the nearsightedness of youth. She reasoned that because she was beautiful she was significant, though what she signified, and to whom, was not clear yet...She was, after all, on her way to Shiz because she was smart. But there was more than one way to be smart.”