“I said I could and I would. And I did.”
“It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.”
“To have a good brain the stomach must be cared for.”
“The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.”
“A pretty young Hebrew woman spoke so little English I could not get her story except as told by the nurses. They said her name is Sarah Fishbaum, and that her husband put her in the asylum because she had a fondness for other men than himself.”
“I felt sure now that no doctor could tell whether people were insane or not, so long as the case was not violent. Later”
“That was the greatest night of my existence. For a few hours I stood face to face with “self!” I”
“VERY EARLY THE OTHER MORNING I started out, not with the pleasure-seekers, but with those who toil the day long that they may live.”
“Compare this with a criminal, who is given every chance to prove his innocence. Who would not rather be a murderer and take the chance for life than be declared insane, without hope of escape?”
“Illusions are to the soul what atmosphere is to the earth.”
“Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved”
“The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. There was never a time when you and I and all the kings gathered here have not existed and nor will there be a time when we will cease to exist.”
“I'll show up at every classroom open house and teacher conference,' she said, now in a voice that was almost frightening in its intensity. 'I'll bake brownies. My child will have new clothes. Her shoes will fit. She'll get her shots, and she'll get her braces. We'll start a college fund next week. I'll tell her I love her every damn day.'
If that wasn't a great plan for being a good mother, I couldn't imagine what a better one could be.”
“I don’t know how you can stand it. Over and over again, the same sadness—”
He lifted her up. “The same ecstasy—”
“The same fire that kills everything—”
“The same passion that ignites it all again. You don’t know. You can’t remember how wonderful—”
“I’ve seen it. I do know.”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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