Mary Antin Quotes

• We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

  Mary Antin

  Mom, Mother, Spiritual

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.60, Courier Corporation

  47 Copy quote

• It is only that my illusion is more real to me than reality. And so do we often build our world on an error, and cry out that the universe is falling to pieces, if any one but lift a finger to replace the error by truth.

  Mary Antin

  Real, Fall, Errors

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.55, Courier Corporation

  14 Copy quote

• It is not that I belong to the past, but the past that belongs to me.

  Mary Antin

  Past

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.251, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

• A characteristic thing about the aspiring immigrant is the fact that he is not content to progress alone. Solitary success is imperfect success in his eyes. He must take his family with him as he rises.

  Mary Antin

  Eye, Progress, Facts

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.245, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

• The apex of my civic pride and personal contentment was reached on the bright September morning when I entered the public school.

  Mary Antin

  Morning, School, Pride

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.136, Courier Corporation

  57 Copy quote

• Such creatures of accident are we, liable to a thousand deaths before we are born. But once we are here, we may create our own world, if we choose.

  Mary Antin

  World, May, Liable

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.40, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

• It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have to remember too much. A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.

  Mary Antin

  Running, Past, Two

  Mary Antin (1912). “The Promised Land”, Houghton Mifflin company

  4 Copy quote

• There was one public school for boys, and one for girls, but Jewish children were admitted in limited numbers - only ten to a hundred; and even the lucky ones had their troubles.

  Mary Antin

  Girl, Children, School

  6 Copy quote

• His struggle for a bare living left him no time to take advantage of the public evening school. In time he learned to read, to follow a conversation or lecture; but he never learned to write correctly; and his pronunciation remains extremely foreign to this day.

  Mary Antin

  Struggle, Writing, School

  Mary Antin (1912). “At School in the Promised Land: Or The Story of a Little Immigrant”

  7 Copy quote

• The past was only my cradle, and now it cannot hold me, because I am grown too big.

  Mary Antin

  Past, Cradle, Bigs

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.251, Courier Corporation

  6 Copy quote

• Among the liveliest of my memories are those of eating and drinking; and I would sooner give up some of my delightful remembered walks, green trees, cool skies, and all, than to lose my images of suppers eaten on Sabbath evenings at the end of those walks.

  Mary Antin

  Giving Up, Memories, Drinking

  Mary Antin (1912). “The Promised Land”, Houghton Mifflin company

  6 Copy quote

• There is never a Jewish community without its scholars, but where Jews may not be both intellectuals and Jews, they prefer to remain Jews.

  Mary Antin

  Community, May, Scholar

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.76, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

  Mary Antin

  Mother, Spiritual, Pain

  Mary Antin (1912). “The Promised Land”, Houghton Mifflin company

  8 Copy quote

• You heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses.

  Mary Antin

  Children, Two Sides, Noses

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.16, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

• I have so little mastered the art of tranquil living that wherever I go I trail storm clouds of drama around me.

  Mary Antin

  Art, Drama, Clouds

  7 Copy quote

• On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.

  Mary Antin

  Birthday, House, Police

  14 Copy quote

• The czar always got his dues, no matter if it ruined a family.

  Mary Antin

  Matter, Ruined, Czars

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.12, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession.

  Mary Antin

  Bed, Confession, Autobiography

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.12, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• One current of continuity runs underneath all the abortive phases of my life. From childhood on I have been obliged to drop anything I was doing to run after any man who seemed to know a little more than I did about God . . . I most want to write about: how a modern woman has sought the face of God-not the name nor the fame but the face [ital] of God-and what adventures came to meet her on this ancient human path.

  Mary Antin

  Running, Women, Writing

  4 Copy quote

• A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.

  Mary Antin

  Running, Past, Long

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.13, Courier Corporation

  4 Copy quote

• [I began to unload] the pyramid of honors, civic and literary, which had been heaped on me by the headlong process of rewarding a popular success. One day, I sat down and wrote a wholesale lot of letters of resignation. When I finished, I didn't belong to a single authors club or patriotic society. I was myself again, whatever that was.

  Mary Antin

  Patriotic, Pyramids, Honor

  4 Copy quote

• I want now to be of today. It is painful to be conscious of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness.

  Mary Antin

  Two, World, Want

  4 Copy quote

• What we get in steerage is not the refuse, but the sinew and bone of all the nations.

  Mary Antin

  Bones, Refuse, Nations

  Mary Antin (1914). “They who Knock at Our Gates: A Complete Gospel of Immigration”

  7 Copy quote

• The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any cooking, from little tin cans that had printing all over them.

  Mary Antin

  Father, Tin Cans, Cooking

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.127, Courier Corporation

  10 Copy quote

• You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose.

  Mary Antin

  Children, Heart, Noses

  Mary Antin (2013). “The Promised Land”, p.16, Courier Corporation

  7 Copy quote

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