Kate Chopin

"To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence."

"Each shall have her own way—the right way—or no way at all."

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will."

"The water was dark and mysterious, and seemed to whisper secrets of the souls."

"Real talent, real skill, real artistry commands respect at all times and everywhere."

"She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before."

"Her whole being was abandoned to the storm of passion."

"There was something in the action of Edna's hands, the turn of her head, the glance of her eyes, that suggested a certain frankness of manner."

"Life is too short and too precious to waste in resenting the past."

"The years that are gone seem like dreams—if one might go on sleeping and dreaming."

"She had never before known what it was to desire, to feel the stir of passionate longing."

"To be an artist includes much; one must possess many gifts—absolute gifts—which have not been acquired by one's own effort."

"Her resistance was not entirely a matter of thought; it was partly instinctive."

"She was beginning to recognize her relations in their true character."

"The past was theirs, the future was her own."

"A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her."

"She felt the old ennui overtaking her; that hopelessness which she had felt before receiving her father's letter."

"The world we create through our choices is the world we must live in."

"Independence is something which shall be her undoing."

"There was no one thing in the world that she desired. All was mystery and witchcraft."

"She felt as if she were being borne away from some anchorage which had held her safe."

"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul in tones of infinite tenderness."

"A woman cannot be happy without love, or so we have been taught to believe."

"Her passions had always been aroused by the unexpected and the unattainable."

"She wore her emotions on the surface, where they were plain to see."

"The years between had been years of incessant toiling; she hardly remembered them."

"She had been married eight years, and was beginning to recognize her relations in their true character."

"Nothing was ever real to her when once she discovered it."

"Art was her greatest passion, and she pursued it with the intensity of one who has just discovered life."

"To refuse to acknowledge the chains binding us is to remain forever enslaved."