“Ready-made phrases and the ritual of etiquette were unknown to him; his thoughtfulness was pure improvisation, and it resembled the little inventions affection inspires.”

“I think that where you go wrong is that you imagine that your reasons for living ought to fall on you, ready-made from heaven, whereas we have to find them for ourselves.”

“Insects were scurrying about in the shade cast by the grass, and the lawn was a huge monotonous forest of thousands of little green blades, all equal, all alike, hiding the world from each other. Anguished, she thought, "I don't want to be just another blade of grass.”

“I was very fond of Lagneau’s phrase: “I have no comfort but in my absolute despair.”

“I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.”

“Fathers never have exactly the daughters they want because they invent a notion a them that the daughters have to conform to.”

“She was ready to deny the existence of space and time rather than admit that love might not be eternal.”