What does the truth matter? Haven't we mothers all given our sons a taste for lies, lies which from the cradle upwards lull them, reassure them, send them to sleep: lies as soft and warm as a breast!

Faith is not a thing which one 'loses', we merely cease to shape our lives by it.

Truth is meant to save you first, and the comfort comes afterward.

Truth exists; only lies are invented.

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air.

Mothers see the angel in us because the angel is there. If it's shown to the mother, the son has got an angel to show, hasn't he? When a son cuts somebody's throat the mother only sees it's possible for a misguided angel to act like a devil - and she's entirely right about that!