The great thing Emily D. has done, and very great — she has hidden and refused herself completely to everyone who would not appreciate her and accept her on her own terms. Yet who "knew" and "saw" her. But she gave herself completely to people of other ages and places who never saw her, but who could receive her gift anyway, regardless of space and time. It is like hugging an angel.

Thomas Merton, A Search for Solitude by Thomas Merton, Lawrence S. Cunningham, editor