“The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.”

“The problem is not making up the steps but deciding which ones to keep.”

“The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!”

“All the world was before me and every day was a holiday, so it did not seem important to which one of the world's wildernesses I first should wander.”

“One must require from each one the duty which each one can perform. Accepted authority rests first of all on reason.”

“One open, one closed. It was no wonder that the first image that came to mind when I thought of either of my sisters was a door. With Kirsten, it was the front one to our house, through which she was always coming in or out, usually in mid-sentence, a gaggle of friends trailing behind her. Whitney’s was the one to her bedroom, which she preferred to keep shut between her and the rest of us, always.”