“Only a baby would have thought it really happened. Only a baby would believe that a tree—seriously, a tree—had walked down the hill and attacked the house.”
“You may think some of this seems far-fetched, even impossible. Believe me, I know we all cling to life and its certainties. It’s not easy in these cynical times to cast off the hardness and edge that gets us through our days. But try just a little.”
“I couldn’t believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn’t find any room for it anywhere inside of me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn’t wanted to know.”
″... I can hardly believe my eyes. Who would have ever imagined, under this terrestrial crust, an ocean with ebbing and flowing tides, with winds and storms?”
″‘No one would come from the zoo because they wouldn’t believe us,’ said Judy. ‘And you know how upset Mother would be if there was a lion in the bedroom. We started this game, and now we have to finish it.‘”
″...he and the Hunters spent many hours patiently tracking down evidence which was sometimes so conflicting and confusing that it was useless, and sometimes so coincidental that it was difficult to believe.”
“It is difficult but important to believe that this precious pair may have been trying to do the best they could, considering the kind of people they were.”
“Aunt Polly placed small trust in such evidence. She went out to see for herself; and she would have been content to find twenty per cent. of Tom’s statement true. When she found the entire fence white-ashed, and not only whitewashed but elaborately coated and recoated, and even a streak added to the ground, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.”