“I suppose the unconscious thought expressing itself in such a display of animal boisterousness is: 'Look, Death, look; here is somebody alive and very much alive.”

Interprets youthful exuberance as an instinctive challenge to mortality · Diary, 1939

• Death
• Joy
• Memory

“We cannot recall Mary Stuart without seeing the shadow of Knox at her back.”

Compresses a conflict of freedom and religious severity into one image · Diary, 1931

• Faith
• Memory

“Even yet I can feel it — as if a statue grown warm, not bitter, with the desire to run.”

Transforms physical longing into a striking image of retained vitality · Diary, 1935

• Joy
• Memory
• Mortality

“The thought, of course, is but fleeting — for it is folly to brood: and has not one known the joy — which is enough; and are there not many who have never known it?”

Counters regret with gratitude for happiness already experienced · Diary, 1935

• Hope
• Joy
• Memory