"Disconnecting from change does not recapture the past. It loses the future."

"When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?"

"Changing husbands is only changing troubles."

"Intimacy is what makes a marriage, not a ceremony, not a piece of paper from the state."

"Life is easier to take than you think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable and bear the intolerable."

"If we are lucky, we can give in and rest without feeling guilty. We can stop doing and concentrate on being."

"Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you."

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."

"Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."

"Reading this book is like waiting for the first shoe to drop."

"When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it."

"Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal."