“There was certainly much to be said for being at the mercy of the primeval elements, to be swept along by circumstances one could not in any way control, but it was good to return, to feel one's identity expand again, unchecked.”

“I feel as if one would only discover on one's death-bed what one ought to have lived for, and realise too late that one's life has been wasted. Any passionate and courageous life seems good in itself, yet one feels that some element of delusion is involved in giving so much passion to any humanly attainable object. And so irony creeps into the very springs of one's being.”

“Without attempting any systematic employment of time, and carrying it out, so far as they control circumstances, most women are rather driven along by the daily occurrence of life; so that, instead of being the intelligent regulators of their own time, they are the mere sport of circumstances.”

“I said I would like it very much, which was a lie, but one must lie under certain circumstances and at all times when one can't do anything about them.”

“All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.”

“Happiness is not a feeling, it is a choice. To be happy, one must choose to be happy, not respond to a circumstance that now controls your happiness.”