“When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they are doing, how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith, soothe pain, give an ideal life to those whose hours are cold and hard, bind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds of beauty, bring down truth from heaven; I give eternal blessings for this gift, and thank God for books.”

“We are either progressing or retrograding all the while there is no such thing as remaining stationary in this life.”

“The difference between a politician and a statesman is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman think about the next generation.”

“The desire to know the future gnaws at our bones. That is where it started, and might have ended, years ago.I had cast the stones, seeing their faces flicker and fall: Death, Love, Murder, Treachery, Hope. We are a treacherous people - half of our stones show betrayal and violence and death from those close, death from those far away. It is not so with other peoples. I have seen other sets that show only natural disasters: death from sickness, from age, the pain of a broken heart, loss in childbirth. And those stones are more than half full with pleasure and joy and plain, solid warnings like "You reap what you sow" and "Victory is not the same as satisfaction."Of course, we live in a land taken by force, by battle and murder and invasion. It is not so surprising that our stones reflect our history.”

“I should write a serious book on China. If I did that and put in a lot of subtext about love and maybe compared it to the Great Wall or communism or something I could show the parallels between how we are forced to act in society due to cultural mores, versus how we really are, like, behind our own personal Jungian Great Walls. Then people would take my writing seriously like they do with Marni and Tess and that guy who wrote the Great Gatsby.”

“There are two types of women in the world, Beattie, those who do things and those who have things done to them.”

“Have faith that you are a daughter of Heavenly Father who loves you.Determine which of your divine gifts will allow you to be a champion for Christ.Realize that you have been sent to Earth with a divine mission that is yours to achieve.Let your knowledge come from the good parts of life that surround you.Choose to set high standards and defend them.Become a great woman by doing good. Always be on the Lord's errand.Leave your mark. Be true in every situation--even when no one is watching.Let your strength come from having high moral standards.Look to Him.Stand as His witness.Become a keeper of what matters most.”