Rosie

“Nothing great is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen. Is then the fruit of a fig-tree not perfected suddenly and in one hour, and would you possess the fruit of a man's mind in so short a time and so easily? Do not expect it, even if I tell you.”
― Epictetus, Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion and Fragments

“She could probably tell by the trembling of my hand that I was startled. It was too violent and intimate for me. Feeling my hand stir, she gripped it tighter as if she had to finish her story before she could let go. It was important to her, and I sat quietly as one sits before a bird that feeds from your palm.”
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

“She tried to soothe me, to tell me it didn't matter, that there was no reason to blame myself. But ashamed, and no longer able to control my anguish, I began to sob. There in her arms I cried myself to sleep, and I dreamed of the courtier and the pick cheeked maiden. But in my dream it was the maiden who held the sword.”
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

“Therefore we ought to exercise ourselves in small things, and beginning with them to proceed to the greater.”
― Epictetus