“Sometimes you just have to jump in a mud puddle because it s there. Never get so old that you forget about having fun.”
“Running in the wind, in the pollen and dust, a flower in flight”
“The youthful body untouched decays the fastest, for no living hands record its splendor; and here youth and time are wasted.”
“How we are almost nothing. We think, in our youth, we are the centre of the universe, but we simply respond, go this way or that by accident, survive or improve by the luck of the draw, with little choice or determination on our part.”
“O youth! youth! you go your way heedless, uncaring – as if you owned all the treasures of the world; even grief elates you, even sorrow sits well upon your brow. You are self-confident and insolent and you say, I alone am alive – behold! even while your own days fly past and vanish without trace and without number, and everything within you melts away like wax in the sun .. like snow .. and perhaps the whole secret of your enchantment lies not, indeed, in your power to do whatever you may will, but in your power to think that there is nothing you will not do: it is this that you scatter to the winds – gifts which you could never have used to any other purpose. Each of us feels most deeply convinced that he has been too prodigal of his gifts – that he has a right to cry, Oh, what could I not have done, if only I had not wasted my time.”
“A talent is a gift from God.”
“When I Was One-And-Twenty When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, `Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free. But I was one-and-twenty No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty I heard him say again, `The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue. And I am two-and-twenty And oh, tis true, tis true.”
“Whose little boy are you?”
“What we want to see is the child in pursuit of the knowledge not the knowledge in pursuit of the child.”
“If I could get back my youth, I d do anything in the world except get up early, take exercise or be respectable.”
“Where there is not community, trust, respect, ethical behavior are difficult for the young to learn and for the old to maintain.”
“It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should all be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of the other. A pyramid of flesh with the whitefolks on the bottom, as the broad base, then the Indians with their silly tomahawks and teepees and wigwams and treaties, the Negroes with their mops and recipes and cotton sacks and spirituals sticking out of their mouths. The Dutch children should all stumble in their wooden shoes and break their necks. The French should choke to death on the Louisiana Purchase (1803) while silkworms ate all the Chinese with their stupid pigtails. As a species, we were an abomination. All of us.”
“The madness of youth made me unafraid.”
“Life seemed even more of a guessing game than usual.”
“As Buckingham talked, I couldn t help but remember that there s a reason they call us Gallagher Girls. It s not just because the youngest of us are twelve. It s also because our founder was under twenty. From the very beginning we have been discounted and discredited, underestimated and undervalued. And, for the most part, we wouldn t have it any other way.”
“He doesn t know it yet, but the infinity of childhood is brief.”
“I wondered for a moment if he was trying to get me to join a cult, but I realized it was just his youth talking, not a dogma.”