Children judge each other harshly, but don't make nice distinctions among the grown.

You must sit down to speak this language,It is so heavy you can't be polite or chatter in it.For once you have begun a sentence, the whole course of your life is laid out before you"-quoted in "The Geography of Bliss

It's odd to see pictures of your parents before your own birth, before your nagging presence altered their lives forever.

How naive and foolish the young are to imagine that they understand the loneliness of great age, the outliving of your contemporaries, anyone to whom your century of memory might make any sense.

Don't whine about your poverty and brainless labor. You can read, can't you? Get thee to a library and foment rebellion - in both inner and outer worlds.

We all need new ideas, images, and experiences far more than we need new stoves or cars or computers.