Pearl Buck

There is an alchemy in sorrow. It can be transmuted into wisdom, which, if it does not bring joy, can yet bring happiness.

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same.

Teaching is as sacred as priesthood. If one has not the concern for humanity, the love of living creatures, the vision of the priest and artist, he must not teach.

The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death.
Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off...
They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.

Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.

At my age the bones are water in the morning until food is given them.

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that's where you renew your springs that never dry up.

A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.

Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then, Life is dull without it.

There are many ways of breaking a heart. Stories were full of hearts broken by love, but what really broke a heart was taking away its dream - whatever that dream might be.