Emma Troyer

“Surely she had never asked God for anything except that He should let her have her will. And every time she had been granted what she asked for - for the most part. Now here she sat with a contrite heart - not because she had sinned against God but because she was unhappy that she had been allowed to follow her will to the road's end.

She had not come to God with her wreath or with her sins and sorrows, not as long as the world still possessed a drop of sweetness to add to her goblet. But now she had come, after she had learned that the world is like an alehouse: The person who has no more to spend is thrown outside the door.”
― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter

“The truth is, a farm swallows you up, takes everything you have, and then asks for more. It is also an exercise in humility: you can’t do it alone.”
― James Rebanks, Pastoral Song

“We live in communities that need goodness, truth, and beauty. And we play a role in advancing those transcendentals that make us human. We are to curate them for others. We play a role in blowing on the embers of "whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable.”
― Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith

“A man must have succeeded in something to be happy, but a woman must be needed.”
― Elizabeth Coatsworth, Here I Stay