In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.
That was the best of all. To speak the truth and be attended.
There are those who know and those who don’t know. And for every ten thousand who don’t know there’s only one who knows. That’s the miracle of all time–the fact that these millions know so much but don’t know this.
What did he understand? Nothing. Where was he headed? Nowhere. What did he want? To know. What? A meaning. Why? A riddle.
The eyes of his friend were moist and dark, and in them he saw the little rectangled pictures of himself that he had watched a thousand times.
The most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.
It was like that kid had been born knowing how to read. He was only in the second grade but he loved to read stories by himself – and he never asked anybody else to read to him.
By the moonlight he watched his wife for the last time. His hand sought the adjacent flesh and sorrow paralleled desire in the immense complexity of love.
He did not wholly understand the intricate play of ideas and the complex phrases, but as he read he sensed a strong, who purpose behind the words and he felt that he almost understood.
In one of their quarrels, they had begun calling each other Mister. and Misses., and since then they had never made it up enough to change it.
The thinking mind is best controlled by the imagination.
That was all he wanted for himself – to give to her. Biff’s mouth hardened. He had done nothing wrong but in him he felt a strange guilt. Why? The dark guilt in all men, unreckoned and without a name.
We are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known
I am not meant to be alone and without you who understands.
Each day was very much like any other day, because they were alone so much that nothing ever disturbed them.
Because in some men, it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons – throw it to some human being or some human idea.
The people dreamed and fought and slept as much as ever. And by habit they shortened their thoughts so that they would not wander out into the darkness beyond tomorrow.
Doctor Copeland belt old evil anger in him. The words rose inchoately to his throat and he could not speak them. They would listen to the old man. Yet to word the reason they will not attend.
A person can’t pick up they children and just squeeze them to which-a-way they wants them to be.
Wonderful music like this was the worst hurt there could be. The whole world was the symphony, and there was not enough of her to listen.
The old bitterness came up in him and he did not have time to cogitate and push it down.
I got to wear blinders all the time so I won’t think sideways or in the past.
There was another thing bigger than the tiredness – and this was the strong crew purpose.
Because of the insolence of all the white race he was afraid to lose his dignity in friendliness.
It was the year Frankie thought about the world. And she did not see it as a round school globe, with the countries neat and different-colored. She thought of the world as huge and cracked and looseand turning a thousand miles an hour.
Maybe that was the trouble. She got the first and biggest share of everything – first whack at the new clothes and the biggest part of any special treat. Hazel never had to grab for anything and she was soft.
Leonora Penderton feared neither man, beast, nor the devil; God she had never known.
We are homesick most for the places we have never known.
It wasn’t like she was lonely and in fact – she had understood it all in every way except with her brain. Now she knew that she knew.
The job wouldn’t be just put the summer, but for a long time, as long as she could see ahead. Once they were used to the money coming in it would be impossible to do without again.
The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.
It was a year when Frankie thought about the world. And she did not see it as a round school globe with the countries neat and different-coloured. She thought of the world as huge and cracked and loose and turning a thousand miles an hour.
The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.