I have never known a novel that was good enough to be good in spite of its being adapted to the author’s political views. - Edith Wharton

What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath.

I couldn't have spoken like this yesterday, because when we've been apart, and I'm looking forward to seeing you, every thought is burnt up in a great flame. But then you come; and you're so much more than I remembered, and what I want of you is so much more than an hour or two every now and then, with wastes of thirsty waiting between, that I can sit perfectly still beside you, like this, with that other vision in my mind, just quietly trusting it to come true.

There are two ways of spreading light: to be
The candle or the mirror that reflects it.