Mary Ellen Chase

Manual labor to my father was not only good and decent for it's own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one's thoughts.

There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.

Suffering without understanding in this life is a heap worse than suffering when you have at least the grain of an idea what it's all for.

I used to have nightmares when I was a little kid that I woke up prematurely and opened all the Christmas presents. And then I would be so relieved when I woke up and I realized that I hadn't done it.

As a young child my attention span was, as I remember it, rather short.

I'd date someone younger or older; age doesn't matter to me. Or looks, really - it's all about maturity.