Quotes from Sara Donati

It was a rare gift she had, this ability to look ahead, through the loss and heartache, beyond the hardship, to see so clearly the possibilities that waited for them. If they could be strong, if they could persevere.

The thrill of telling her true feelings without considering good manners or the propriety of what she had to say was intoxicating.

A snowfield was like a bed, white and smooth and inviting: come and lay your head. Lay your head and sleep. A glittering soft death, a sliding away without noise or pain.

Children survived, if they had half a chance. Children who could form attachments survived best.

Today I am here to recruit detectives to assist in fighting an epidemic that is raging across this country. A disease being spread by medical practitioners themselves. And not just charlatans or low men, no. Doctors, nurses, druggists, and midwives supply information and instructions on contraceptive methods to any woman who asks—and worse, they will sell syringes and rubber caps

As you are aware," he went on, "police officers do not always see through the elaborate screens set up by these medical practitioners who are so contemptuous of the laws of God and man. But I believe that detectives are equal to this challenge and I would like all of you to volunteer to serve as agents of the Society for the Suppression

Things never quite turn out the way you imagine, do they," Miss Branson said, her voice low and almost amused in tone. "You have to pay attention to the moment in your hands, before it's gone.

that twitched constantly at one corner. Although

Pain had a posture of its own; it sat in the spine and across the slope of the shoulders and bowed bone.

Dying shouldn't be so hard," he said. "It shouldn't be harder than living.

There's something your ma said to me a long time ago, I never have forgot it. She said, every one of us has got a few demons that we carry with us wherever we go, whether we want to or not. They can't be shook off or run away from.

Contraception is illegal and so is abortion. History makes it clear that human beings are not capable of abstinence. The poor—wait, what did you call them? The underclasses. How do you suggest their numbers be kept to levels you find acceptable?

In the distance the sky sparked and caught on fire, glowing green and gold and purple. Over the village of Paradise lightning jumped from cloud to cloud and then it put down long legs and walked the earth. The thunder came with a great rip of sound. Hannah closed her eyes and saw the light still, throbbing bloodred.

Contrary to what Comstock and the physicians on the jury seemed to believe, women in distress could find a way to end an unwanted pregnancy, so long as they could pay for it. For every case that came to public view because something went terribly wrong, there were a hundred or more that remained a private matter.

Oh, yes," Anna said. "I would like to know what measures you advocate." He stood a little straighter. "The first problem is the influx of the worst of Europe. The moral and intellectual dregs must be turned away. If such a policy had been put in place at the right time, Michael and Dylan Joyce would have been born in Ireland, and feeding them would not fall to us.

They could bind her to them, all of them, with need and love and worry. But they would not. They knew her as well as she knew them, and they would not ask her to stay.

Malthusians believe that overpopulation will cause economic disaster and the end of civilized society. They put the blame for overpopulation—for everything, really—on the immigrant poor. It's xenophobia disguised as economic theory.

He was still assuming the guilty party was a man, which was likely, after all. Women killed with poison; men made a science of inflicting pain.

There ain't nothing like religion to bring out the worst in folks.

She must not interfere in her children's lives, but neither could she look away, no matter how much trouble they made for themselves.

In the quiet Rosa came forward and put an arm around her sister. They looked so much alike, and were so different in the way they saw the world. She wondered if Rosa might have been a child more like her sister if circumstance hadn't demanded the impossible of her.

Surrender gracefully. In time you'll find it was worth the sacrifice. But it will require time and patience and perhaps most important, a sense of humor.

They were silent for a moment, each of them contemplating Anthony Comstock, a demagogue with too much power for such a limited understanding and narrow mind. Many saw him as nothing more than a sanctimonious buffoon, but those who paid attention knew him to be malicious and calculating.

It wasn't an unusual thing for her to keep her thoughts to herself. She had that Quaker habit. Quiet contemplation, she call[ed] it. I got to like it myself, listening to the world without making any noise to add to it.