“It's the worst kind of cruelty — the thoughtless kind. You can't cope with it.”

“There is no such thing as freedom on earth," he said. "Only different kinds of bondages. And comparative bondages. YOU think you are free now because you've escaped from a peculiarly unbreakable kind of bondage. But are you? You love me - THAT'S a bondage.”

“It's fun to be almost grown up in some ways, but it's not the kind of fun I expected, Marilla. There's so much to learn and do and think that there isn't time for big words.”

“Well, one must be a slave to something in this kind of a world,' he said.”

“If it's IN you to climb you must -- there are those who MUST lift their eyes to the hills -- they can't breathe properly in the valleys.”

“Nathan always believed his wife was trying to poison him but he didn't seem to mind. He said it made life kind of exciting.”

“Well, I don't know," said the Story Girl thoughtfully. "I think there are two kinds of true thing - true things that are, and true things that are not, but might be.”