“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into ones life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to ones side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed ...”

“It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”

“Anne laughed."I don't want sunbursts or marble halls, I just want you.”

“But pearls are for tears, the old legend says," Gilbert had objected."I'm not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyeswh...”

“And if you couldn't be loved, the next best thing was to be let alone.”

“Oh, Marilla, I thought I was happy before. Now I know that I just dreamed a pleasant dream of happiness. This is the reality.”

“People are too complicated to have simple labels.”

“I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots--prostitute, housewife, saint--like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as water.”

“People don't want other people to be people.”

“A name can't begin to encompass the sum of all her parts. But that's the magic of names, isn't it? That the complex, contradictory individuals we are can be called up complete and whole in another ...”

“People often lose their names. Names fall into holes or get eaten by wild animals. Sometimes theyre carried away by the wind.”

“Young man, names are powerful things. You dont just go around using them for no reason.”

“Words used carelessly, as if they did not matter in any serious way, often allowed otherwise well-guarded truths to seep through.”

“You are the owner and keeper of your word. Distribute them wisely.”

“I found a word, and carefully placed it next to another. Soon I had a bridge and a pathway to a wonderful future.”