“Night is beautiful when you are happy--comforting when you are in grief--terrible when you are lonely and unhappy.”

“That's the worst…or the best…of real life, Anne. It won't let you be miserable. It keeps on trying to make you comfortable…and succeeding…even when you're determined to be unhappy and romantic.”

“The greatest happiness [...] is to sneeze when you want to.”

“Cakes have such a terrible habit of turning out bad, just when you especially want them to be good!”

“The things you wanted so much when you were a child don't seem half so wonderful to you when you get them”

“I've just been imagining that it was really me you wanted after all and that I was to stay here for ever and ever. It was a great comfort while it lasted. But the worst of imagining things is that the time comes when you have to stop and that hurts.”

“But I just went to work and imagined that I had on the most beautiful pale blue silk dress — because when you are imagining you might as well imagine something worth while…”