"Ah, lass, you know I love you. I married you all the same." (Chapter 9, page 111)

"In those days nobody wanted you, no matter how good you might have been, no matter how hard you were prepared to work." (Chapter 16, page 293)

"However hard we work we end up where we were afore. There's no point in doing ought. Whatever we do, whatever we say, we end exactly where we wa' before." (Chapter 18, page 343 - 344)

"You'll find you'll get no more out of life than what you put into it." (Chapter 19, page 357)

"Oh, well, one man's bitterness mustn't feed another's." (Chapter 19, page 369)

"If everything is meaningless, that, nevertheless, we still ascribe a meaning to it." (Chapter 20 page 389)

"There should be more to a woman's life that getting married." (Chapter 22, page 411)

"It's so awful. It's so sickening. It's not that I don't feel sorry for," she said. "I do. But to...