“Only the stupid and the phlegmatic should teach.”

“Artistic growth is, more than it is anything else, a refining of the sense of truthfulness. The stupid believe that to be truthful is easy; only the artist, the great artist, knows how difficult it is.”

“Schools are not meant to make boys happy, Cécile, but to teach them to do without happiness.”

“A pioneer should have imagination, should be able to enjoy the idea of things more than the things themselves.”

“After that hard winter, one could not get enough of the nimble air. Every morning I wakened with a fresh consciousness that winter was over. There were none of the signs of spring for which I used to watch in Virginia, no budding woods or blooming gardens. There was only—spring itself; the throb of it, the light restlessness, the vital essence of it everywhere: in the sky, in the swift clouds, in the pale sunshine, and in the warm, high wind—rising suddenly, sinking suddenly, impulsive and playful like a big puppy that pawed you and then lay down to be petted. If I had been tossed down blindfold on that red prairie, I should have known that it was spring.”

“Only a Woman, divine, could know all that a woman can suffer.”

“The world is little, people are little, human life is little. There is only one big thing — desire.”