Sami Brandon

“The devoutest person could have rendered no greater homage to the efficacy of an honest prayer than he did in this distrust of his wife. It was as if a professed unbeliever in ghosts should be frightened by a ghost story.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“Living without expectations is hard but, when you can do it, good. Living without hope is harder, and that is bad. You have got to have hope, and you mustn't shirk it. Love, after all, 'hopeth all things.' But maybe you must learn, and it is hard learning, not to hope out loud, especially for other people. You must not let your hope turn into expectation." (146)”
― Wendell Berry

“His wife explained that she had merely “asked a blessing.”

“Don’t do it!” said Mr. Cruncher looking about, as if he rather expected to see the loaf disappear under the efficacy of his wife’s petitions. “I ain’t a going to be blest out of house and home. I won’t have my wittles blest off my table. Keep still!”
― Charles Dickens

“When a man turns a blessing from his door, it falls to them as take it in.”
― George Eliot, Silas Marner