Tetsuko Kuroyanagi · 232 pages
Rating: (18.2K votes)
“Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.”
― Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, quote from Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
“Drying her eyes, Mother said to Totto-chan very slowly, "You're Japanese and Masao-chan comes from a country called Korea. But he's a child, just like you. So, Totto-chan, dear, don't ever think of people as different. Don't think, 'That person's a Japanese, or this person's a Korean.' Be nice to Masao-chan. It's so sad that some people think other people aren't nice just because they're Koreans.”
― Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, quote from Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
“Down through the ages and in the whole world, Watt and Newton cannot have been the only ones to notice the steam from a boiling kettle or observe an apple fall. Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire. These are the things to fear, said the headmaster.”
― Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, quote from Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
“He wanted to teach the children that all bodies are beautiful.”
― Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, quote from Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
“But there’s no doubt that children have an innate sense of humor. No matter how young they are, they always know when something’s really funny.”
― Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, quote from Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
“children could be taught to hear and feel music in their minds rather than just with their ears; how to make them feel music as a thing of movement rather than a dull, lifeless subject; how to awaken a child’s sensitivity.”
― Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, quote from Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window
“I mean - when was the last time someone asked if you were happy and then looked you in the eyes in a way that made you feel as though they actually gave a shit about your response?”
― Matthew Quick, quote from Every Exquisite Thing
“There's nothing I like better than a good book discussion with someone who can hold up his end of the argument.”
― Stephen King, quote from Finders Keepers
“And now, with one semester to go, Mark was staring miserably at the reality of graduating with a combined total, undergrad and law school, principal and interest, of $266,000 in debt.”
― John Grisham, quote from The Rooster Bar
“This is now, Zipper said, as she picked up a small stone and slid it in her pocket.”
― C.S. Richardson, quote from The End of the Alphabet
“I think of my own life, how it embraces a great quest to know every cog of nature--the names of oaks and ferns, the secret lives of birds, the taste of venison and Ogeechee lime, wax myrtle's smell and rattlesnake's, the contour of bobcat tracks, the number of barred owl cackles, the feel of Okefenokee Swamp water on my skin under a blistering sun.
I search for a vital knowledge of the land that my father could not teach me, as he was not taught, and guidance to know and honor it, as he was not guided, as if this will shield me from the errancies of the mind, or bring me back from that dark territory should I happen to wander there. I search as if there were peace to be found.”
― Janisse Ray, quote from Ecology of a Cracker Childhood
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