“There didn't seem to her any harm in it, and the make-believe was so comforting.”

“It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.”

“Told her she was beautiful. Didn't give up when she didn't believe me.”

“A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”

“No, none of us seem so very real.

We're only supporting characters in the lives of each other.

Any real truth, any precious fact will always be lost in a mountain of shattered make-believe.”

“Like her father, he wasn't comfortable sharing his thoughts and feelings. She tried to explain that she needed to be closer to him, but it had never seemed to make a difference.”

“You may as well know, Philip — you'll soon find out, anyhow — the truth is she will flirt with any man that she doesn't actively dislike. She's so brimful of life she can't hold herself in — or she won't, rather; she says there's no harm in it, and she doesn't care if there is. Before her marriage she didn't go on in that way, but since it turned out badly she has been simply uncivilized on that point. And her being perfectly clear-headed about it makes it so much worse.”

“Thinking more of others’ happiness than of her own was very fine; but did it not mean giving up her very individuality, quenching all the warm love, the true desires, that made her herself? Yet in this deadness lay her only comfort; so it seemed.”

“I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me any harm.”

“The mistake we make after we have chased away the lie is because we love the truth so much, we make for her a beautiful and very comfortable bed.”