I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public libra... - Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible

"A first child is your own best foot forward, and how you do cheer those little feet as they strike out. You examine every turn of flesh for precocity, and crow it to the world. But the last one: the baby who trails her scent like a flag of surrender through your life when there will be no more coming after--oh, that' s love by a different name."

"God doesn’t need to punish us. He just grants us a long enough life to punish ourselves."

"I wonder that religion can live or die on the strength of a faint, stirring breeze. The scent trail shifts, causing the predator to miss the pounce. One god draws in the breath of life and rises; another god expires."

"To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know."

"Every life is different because you passed this way and touched history."