“Living does mean accepting the loss of one joy after another, not even joys in her case, mere possibilities of improvement.”

“This, and much more, she accepted - for after all living did mean acceptingthe loss of one joy after another, not even joys in her case - merepossibilities of improvement. She thought of the endless waves of painthat for some reason or other she and her husband had to endure; of theinvisible giants hurting her boy in some unimaginable fashion; of theincalculable amount of tenderness contained in the world; of the fate ofthis tenderness, which is either crushed, or wasted, or transformed intomadness; of neglected children humming to themselves in unswept corners;of beautiful weeds that cannot hide from the farmer and helplessly have towatch the shadow of his simian stoop leave mangled flowers in its wake, asthe monstrous darkness approaches.”

“The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art, one of the joys of civilized living…”

“There are few things in life that bring as much joy as the joy that comes from assisting another improve his or her life.”

“The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that it cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.”

“Acceptance of death when it arrives is one thing, but to allow it to upstage the joys of living is ingratitude.”