The Face of a Stranger

Too many women waste their lives grieving because they do not have something other people tell them they should want. Whether you are happy or not depends to some degree upon outward circumstances, but mostly it depends how you choose to look at things yourself, whether you measure what you have or what you have not.

Be aware that you can truly help people only by aiding them to become what they are, not what you are. I have heard you say 'If I were you, I would do this, or that.' 'I' am never 'you'--and my solutions may not be yours.

Whether you are happy or not depends to some degree upon outward circumstances, but mostly it depends how you choose to look at things yourself, whether you measure what you have or what you have not.

Before you pity yourself, take a great deal closer look at others, and then decide with who you would or could change places and what sacrifice of your nature you would be prepared to make in order to do so.

God! I hate clever women!” She froze for an instant before the reply was on her lips. “I love clever men!” Her eyes raked him up and down. “It seems we are both to be disappointed.

But do not walk slowly simply for company—ever. Not even God would wish you to be unequally yoked and result in destroying both of you—in fact God least of all.

Her happiness swept the house in a whirlwind; her misery wrapped it in a purple gloom.

Remember, my dear, you are dealing with the world as it is, not as you believe, maybe rightly, that it ought to be.

Only the quick-fingered, the strong and the lucky reached adulthood. Monk could not afford to indulge in judgment,

She was highly intelligent, with a gift for logical thought which many people found disturbing—especially men, who did not expect it or like it in a woman.

The imagination conjures so many things, and one feels the pain of them all, until one knows.

do not walk slowly simply for company—ever.

rare courage, and a force of character

But then to go out to the Crimea to nurse she must be a woman of courage beyond the ordinary imagination, and to remain there, of a strength of purpose that neither danger nor pain could bend. “I

For a wild moment he thought of friendship, a closeness better than romance, cleaner and more honest; then it disappeared.

She was a remarkable woman and her courage must be immense to have defied her family and traveled virtually alone

But he was too proud and too ambitious to be a coward. He had grasped what he wanted without flinching.

I really do not mind walking two paces behind a man, you know—if only I can find one who can walk two paces faster than I! It is being tied at the knees by convention I hate—and having to pretend I am lame to suit someone else’s vanity.

There are many kinds of misery, and many kinds of fortitude, and you should not allow your awareness of one to build to the value of another.

adventure or decision or freedom of any kind.

take a great deal closer look at others, and then decide with whom you would, or could, change places, and what sacrifice of your nature you would be prepared to make in order to do so.

She was also fonder of reading and study than was attractive in a woman, and not free of the intellectual arrogance of one to whom thought comes easily.

At about twenty she had mentioned it quite seriously at the dinner table. It was the only occasion she could recall of every member of her family laughing at once.

Some academic pursuit had been a suggestion; she found study absorbing, but the tutorial positions open to women were few, and the restrictions of the life did not appeal to her. She read for pleasure.