"Middle age doesn't mean the same to everyone, Miss Anne. It is a time of life when all the forces in a body are at their height, and if a person has lived an unrestrained, selfish youth, the very strength of personality will sweep him on in a current of self-indulgence. If he hasn't struggled to get the better of disagreeable traits of character these will become dominant, and without the charm of youth to soften them they will prove unbearable to his friends.
"Middle age is a time of realization, all right, but it depends upon what one has done with the preceding years. You've done the very best you could always; you've kept a firm hand on the wheel of your life and the compass steadily pointing toward the best. Your children, the neighbors, the finest man in this town adore you; why shouldn't you find life a wonderful, inspiring thing? That's what the good Lord meant it to be for us all." -Martha "Mummy" Mumford to Anne Bradford

"Miss Anne, a man with the ambition to have more and more money is bound to be ruthless. It is a poisonous germ in his blood and the scientists haven't yet found a way to cure it." -Martha "Mummy" Mumford to Anne Bradford