Jeannette Walls Quotes

You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that.

If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise.

I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all.

Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more.

You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own.

Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.

God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us.

Submitting seemed to me a lot like giving up. If God gave us the strength to bail- the gumption to try and save ourselves- isn't that what he wanted us to do?

Everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.

New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.

...even though I was getting better education at home than any of the kids in Toyah, I'd need to go to finishing school when I was thirteen, both to acquire social graces and to earn a diploma. Because in this world, Dad said, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you go it.

In this world, it's not enough to have a fine education. You need a piece of paper to prove you got it.

One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.

She had her addictions and one of them was reading.

You have a mighty high opinion of yourself, I told him. The fact is, you don't love me, and you haven't destroyed me. You don't have what it takes to do that

People are like animals. Some are happiest penned in, some need to roam free. You go to recognize what's in her nature and accept it.

That was the thing to remember about all monsters, They love to frighten
people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.

Life there was hard and it made people hard.

Don't you make fun of me or my children! Some babies are premature. Mine were all postmature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop.

No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids. Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics.