Emma Troyer

“As I scrubbed the floor I was scrubbing part of the world. And I was scrubbing my mind to make it clear. It was work that made me think clear, and it was work that made me humble. I could never talk fast, and I could never say what I meant to people, or tell them what they meant to me. My tongue was loosened by my feelings. It was with my hands and with my back and shoulders that I could say how I felt. I had to talk with my arms and my strong hands.”
― Robert Morgan, Gap Creek

“He used to tell me when Mr. Boswell asked Dr. Johnson which was the greatest of the virtues, he answered unhesitatingly, ‘Courage,’ and when Mr. Boswell asked him why, he said, ‘Because, sir, without courage, one will have little opportunity to practice the other virtues.”
― Elizabeth Coatsworth, Here I Stay

“The secret of her calm seemed to be that she was not trying to prove anything. She was—that was all. And her stance toward life seemed to say: God is—and that is enough.”
― Catherine Marshall, Christy

“In a noisy age, I think perhaps trying to live quietly might be a virtue.”
― James Rebanks, Pastoral Song: A Farmer’s Journey