“The passion for travelling is, I believe, instinctive in some natures. We have seen men persevere in their enterprises against the most formidable obstacles; and, without means or friends, and even ignorant of the languages of the various countries through which they passed, pursue their perilous journeys into remote places, until, like the knight in the Arabian tale, they succeeded in snatching a memorial from every shrine they visited.”

“Illness is merely the bitter, which a wise Providence mingles in the cup of life.”

“None of her spells are planned, but come to her like snatches of poetry or a doodle on a napkin.”

“Every four years we go through the same cycle of hope and disillusionment.”

“...the women are drinking and laughing inside somewhere, Wallis guesses, as manless as these men are without women.”

“Polly had always marveled . . . that her country would name such a processed and unnatural product [American cheese] after itself, yet hungry Rose . . . gleefully ate every individually wrapped, plastic little one of them.”

“All the Baptist churches she's ever visited smelled of the same sweat and boredom.”