“It was for the sake of what had been, rather than what was.”

“Elizabeth could never address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy was over, and, though determined not to slacken as a correspondent, it was for the sake of what had been, rather than what was.”

“...It is when we act freely, for the sake of the action itself rather than for ulterior motives, that we learn to become more than what we were.”

“In the sea of grief, there were islands of grace, moments in time when one could remember what was left rather than all that had been lost.”

“She was grieving the loss of her youth, the closing down of possibilities as life became what it was rather than what it might have been.”

“The sages advise us to study Torah lishma-"for its own sake" rather than to impress others with our scholarship. A paradox of parenting is that if we love our children for their own sake rather than for their achievements, it's more likely that they will reach their true potential.”