“How was she to tie herself to a man without permitting him to imprison her? And was there some means of acquiring things without those things possessing her?”

““Now how can you like a man without wanting him?” she demands of herself aloud.
There is no answer. It is an article of faith with her. If you like a man, it has to be because you want him. Whoever heard of it any other way?”

“A Woman in harmony with her spirit
is like a river flowing.
She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination
prepared to be herself
and only herself”

“She encouraged herself to see her very small presence in the world as a good thing, a power, something that a hero might possess.”

“Without hesitation, she made a fist and hit herself in the right eye, her knuckles making contact with the top of her cheekbone. And then she poured milk into her coffee.”

“Once she knows how to read there's only one thing you can teach her to believe in and that is herself.”

“She didn't know how to love, to give herself to someone, to out herself in someone else's keeping and take him into hers. She didn't trust anyone with her heart - or the darker places of her soul.”

“She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.”

“We may outgrow the things of children, without acquiring sense and relish for those which become a man.”

“A woman's place is like a man's place. It is where her work is, wherever she can do the most good; wherever she serves herself best without invading anyone else.”