13 Quotes by Judith Merkle Riley

He didn't want to puff her up. Puffed-up women are one of the original sources of trouble in the world. If anyone knew that, it was he. He counted it as one of his duties to mankind to keep women from puffing themselves up, though it had been a most monumental duty in his own marriage. A job requiring a hero. It was one of those things that God, being male, questioned you about before you were let into heaven, and he was proud to say that he hadn't neglected it.

Why the Romans, Father?" I asked him one afternoon. "Because, my child, they teach us how to bear suffering in a world of injustice where all faith is dead," he answered.

I could feel something cold stalking my heart. It was fear. They all begin this way, I thought, with pledges of love.

Two halves of the same mind, working at full speed, in perfect coordination.

A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather.

When faced with the illogical, one must expand the sphere of logic to include rules of logic for that which is not logic. This is the only possibility in a world that works according to the rules of rationality.

That is God’s way. He upsets everything and loves to annoy the vain most of all.

Oaths, in my opinion, infernal or not, ought to be short.

There is nothing wrong with being a woman, and doing ordinary things. Sometimes small deeds can show big ideas.