“A compassionate concern for others’ well-being is the source of happiness… a self-centered attitude is the source of the problem. We have to take care of ourselves without selfishly taking care of ourselves. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we cannot survive. We need to do that. We should have wise selfishness rather than foolish selfishness.”
″‘Throat never heals, does it?’ said the nurse speaking in a loud, sure voice to Old Phoenix […] ‘Yes. Swallowed lye. When was it?—January—two—three years ago—‘”
“No, missy, he not dead, he just the same. Every little while his throat begin to close up again, and he not able swallow. He not get his breath. He not able to help himself. So the time come around, and I go on another trip for the soothing-medicine.”
“She lifted her free hand, gave a little nod, turned around, and walked out of the doctor’s office. Then her slow step began on the stairs, going down.”
″ ‘I only had it on special occasions at home. Marmalade’s very expensive in Darkest Peru.’
‘Then you shall have it every morning starting tomorrow,’ continued Mrs. Brown. ‘And honey on Sunday.’ ”
“Although she was a widow (her husband had died only the preceding summer), Mrs. Frisby was able, through luck and hard work, to keep her family—there were four of them—happy and well fed.”
“Though she loved her children, in her practical, unsentimental way, they were to her always “the children”, to be ruled and reared, clothed and educated, but never in any respect her companions.”
″‘Jesus,’ I whisper finally, ‘which do you want me to do? Be one hundred percent honest and carry that dog back to Judd so that one of your creatures can be kicked and starved all over again, or keep him here and fatten him up to glorify your creation?‘”
“He could not remember his own mother and Claire had come as a wonderful surprise, giving him a hug when he came home from school, asking him about his day, telling him about hers, arranging picnics and unexpected parties and helping him with hard homework.”
“The first thing was their kindness. How amazingly widespread it was. They had taken responsibility for her, nursed and clothed her. Someone had given up her bed, probably Beatie; no one had complained when she was snappish and rude about Dovey’s best clothes, about the lack of sanitation; no one had condemned her unsympathetic attitude towards Gibbie.”
“Even though his stomach was in a knot, he suddenly felt perfectly calm. Alright, so now he had a British pilot to take care of. That kind of thing could earn you the death penalty.”