“Happiness can never hope to command so much interest as distress.”
“I don't damsel well. Distress, I can do. Damseling? Not so much.”
“I always had this idea that you should never give up a happy middle in the hopes of a happy ending, because there is no such thing as a happy ending. Do you know what I mean? There is so much to lose.”
“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.”
“Saints and martyrs had never interested Maggie so much as sages and poets.”
“The youth and cheerfulness of morning are in happy analogy, and of powerful operation; and if the distress be not poignant enough to keep the eyes unclosed, they will be sure to open to sensations of softened pain and brighter hope.”