The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

by Beth Brower

Never recognise a gentleman unless you are perfectly sure of his identity. Nothing is more awkward than saluting the wrong person.

“It’s one of the miracles Hawkes performs. He picks you up, dusts you off, and gives you whatever is needed before he disappears into thin air.”

Certainly it’s extra work! Fine things, fine ideas, fine people, require work! This entire age is indulgent and selfish and shortsighted, complaining that easy things are not as easy as they’d like.”

“If you want quality, you must work for it. You wake and you strive and you make decisions to sacrifice. An easy life will never bring the kind of satisfaction the soul craves. I despise people who lounge all day as if there weren’t more important ideas than comfort, complacency, and appetite. Stretch yourself! Be industrious! Do something!”

“Can a man not shift his arm in church?” “Not with an accompanying scowl. It gives the wrong impression.

As for how we’ve varied, I would take my path a thousand times over in a thousand lives, however difficult—the art, the colour, the way that light bends gold around my memories, even the unhappy ones. I have known love and lost. I was gifted so much.

“There’s nothing worse than someone who would shrink their generosity for the sake of keeping what they want,”