"I enjoy all of the seasons equally well. It's so nice to live in a climate that offers a variety of seasons, so one doesn't become bored with any of them."

"Corsets are responsible for more than fifty feminine ailments (…) heart palpitations, difficulty breathing, and light-headedness..."

"The symptoms sounded suspiciously like a romance novel’s description of love. Could it be that thousands of women had married their husbands in the mistaken belief that they were in love, when all along their corsets had been too tight?

How disappointing to watch their love mysteriously vanish once their corsets were unlaced. I made up my mind that if I ever felt love’s symptoms, I would loosen my corset immediately before accepting a proposal of marriage."

“And he has the most beautiful blue eyes too. They’re the colour of the sky on an autumn afternoon (…) they aren’t summer blue – a summer sky is bleached from the heat.

And they’re not wintry blue either, when the cold air frosts the sky with silver. No, his eyes are the colour of an autumn sky, warmed by the glorious leaves that have turned all those exciting colours.”

If you had to choose between being struck blind and never being able to see the face of your beloved again, or becoming permanently deaf, and being denied the sound of music and of a child’s laughter, which would you choose?

"Every cloud has a silver lining."