Quotes from The Immigrants

Howard Fast ·  474 pages

Rating: (8.4K votes)


“Either you get a chance to be a kid when you are a kid, or you don't grow up.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“Only people who suffer show the ravages of age.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“The easiest way to hide a relationship is not to attempt to hide it.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“He found himself smiling and talking politely to people who desired to show their respect and admiration for his uniform-instead of ignoring them and turning away. His sense of separation from and annoyance with these men and women who talked so glibly of war and who had not the faintest notion of what war was ebbed away; and he began to accept the fact that to chatter nonsense with neither knowledge nor perception was the ordinary manner of mankind.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“Will you keep this?" he asked, holding up the pendant. "Please. Don't show it to your folks. But keep it, please. I'm not asking for anything else. You're going away. God knows when I'll see you again. I can accept what you say about your feelings for me. I have to. But what harm will it do if you take this, and then at least, I'll know that something I got for you is with you.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants



“The dignity is in the worker, not in the job.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“I suppose I have cause you grief and misery at times, but I have never intentionally caused you embarrassment and discomfort.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“You seem damn sure of yourself for a man your age?"
"I am as old as I can be at my age. I don't know very much, but I know the water.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“Could be off one of your own boats, Lavette," Whittier said. "The crab I mean." Whittier was hostile, contriving his hostility in witless remarks. Dan said nothing, only thinking that if this small, pompous, foolish man, so uninformed about the essence of his own business, was a measure of the hundred tycoons who ruled the hills of San Francisco, then his own way up would be none too difficult. It came down to money; if you had money, you functioned and you could do without guts or brains; and if you had money, you saw a girl like Jean Sheldon more than once, more than by accident.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


“He found himself grinning at her. His nervousness had disappeared, and suddenly he had a sense of his own size, his physical strength, his own brains and being. Four years, he had earned his own bread and keep, fended for himself, had not only remained alive and well but had put together a small fishing fleet of his own, and kept it alive and functioning and fought the wind and the weather and met a payroll of eleven men in his crews-and be damned with the lot of them if he'd go into a funk over which spoon or knife to use.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants



“Moved by deep love, a man is courageous. And with frugality, a man becomes generous. And he who does not desire to be ahead of the world becomes the leader of the world.”
― Howard Fast, quote from The Immigrants


About the author

Howard Fast
Born place: in New York City, The United States
Born date November 11, 1914
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“There's no paradise in love! It's--you're thinking in the wrong way. Love--the sort you're asking me for--is of the earth, earthy. Beautiful, maybe--sometimes it be like a gold mine that one digs into. But of the earth--earthy. Tis all wrong to speak of paradise. Love may be the nearest human beings can get--but it is still outside the gates--for it is human--easily lost--animal in the way it work, though more, much more than animal. Oftentimes it--uplifts, transports...but--but it should not be mistaken. It is a--a terrible mistake to pretend it is something quite different.”
― Winston Graham, quote from The Four Swans


“The next Friday, I went to visit my favorite Englishman for game night. Justus groaned when I bragged about our plans for an all-night Godzilla marathon, but I knew he was glad to be rid of me. He liked to go out and get his freak on, whether he’d admit it or not. Every man has needs, and his were never satisfied when I tagged along. Maybe I was a little mean to the women, but it irritated me that he didn’t have standards.”
― Dannika Dark, quote from Twist


“He will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts: If he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe, and all my people believe the same. We did not know there were other people besides the Indian until about one hundred winters ago, when some men with white faces came to our country. They brought many things with them to trade for furs and skins. They brought tobacco, which was new to us. They brought guns with flint stones on them, which frightened our women and children. Our people could not talk with these white-faced men, but they used signs which all people understand. These men were called Frenchmen, and they called our people “Nez Perce,” because they wore rings in their noses for ornaments. Although very few of our people wear them now, we are still called by the same name. These French trappers said a great many things to our fathers, which have been planted in our hearts. Some were good for us, but some were bad. Our”
― Kent Nerburn, quote from The Wisdom of the Native Americans: Including The Soul of an Indian and Other Writings of Ohiyesa and the Great Speeches of Red Jacket, Chief Joseph, and Chief Seattle


“As new discoveries continued to accumulate it became apparent that almost every group of coelurosaurs had feathered representatives, from the weird secondarily herbivorous forms such as Beipiaosaurus to Dilong, an early relative of Tyrannosaurus. It is even possible that, during its early life, the most famous of the flesh-tearing dinosaurs may have been covered in a coat of dino-fuzz.”
― Brian Switek, quote from Written in Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature


“Inflection is the adjective of language. It carries the subtleties of delight and horror, the essence of culture and social process.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from The Jesus Incident


Interesting books

Istanbul: Memories and the City
(13K)
Istanbul: Memories a...
by Orhan Pamuk
Hunters of the Dusk
(21.8K)
Hunters of the Dusk
by Darren Shan
Fevre Dream
(17.6K)
Fevre Dream
by George R.R. Martin
The Yellow Wall-Paper
(63K)
The Yellow Wall-Pape...
by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Forever Black
(27.9K)
Forever Black
by Sandi Lynn
The Fill-In Boyfriend
(37.6K)
The Fill-In Boyfrien...
by Kasie West

About BookQuoters

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.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.