Earth is not heaven. It was never meant to be. No new car, new house, new living room furniture, new kitchen appliances, new clothes, new hair, new baby, new vacation, new job, new income, new husband, or new anything will ever satisfy us, because we were not made for the things of this world.

Though Satan makes strong men weak, God is in the business of making weak men strong. Your past isn't the most important thing. Your future is.

A bad past is like gristle. You can chew on it forever and starve yourself to death, or you can spit it out and see what else is on the table.

I want a pain that has a beginning and an end, not one that goes on forever and cuts all the way to the bone.

I want a pain I understand instead of the one I don't. I want a pain that has a beginning and an end, not

You're big enough to climb the rope; you're big enough to take the fall,

That's how the grievin' becomes after a time. You've tossed off the black blanket, but scraps of it fall on you unexpected, your life always a quilt with a dark patch or two. The Good Lord uses those to show off the bright colors, I think.

Truth is, instead of fixing everything, the Arcadia made everything real. Camellia's gone. Lark and Gabion are far away. Queenie's buried in a pauper's grave, and Briny's heart went there with her. He's lost his mind to whiskey, and he doesn't want to come back. Not even for me. Not even for Fern. We're not enough.

How can God allow such abominations to flourish unchecked in this world? The answer came in a question, Ruby. God, in reply, asked, "How can you?

Our valleys may be filled with foes and tears; but we can lift our eyes to the hills to see God and the angels, heaven's spectators, who support us according to God's infinite wisdom as they prepare our welcome home.

I am so angry with myself because I cannot do what I should like to do, and at such a moment one feels as if one were lying bound hand and foot at the bottom of a deep dark well, utterly helpless.

One morning, after many dark nights of despair, an irrepressible longing to live will announce to us the fact that all is finished and that suffering has no more meaning than happiness.