Mary Antin

(534 votes)   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

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(79 votes)   Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(78 votes)   As we moved along in a little procession, I was delighted with the illumination of the streets. So many lamps, and they burned until morning, my father said, and so people did not need to carry lanterns.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(77 votes)   If education, culture, the higher life were shining things to be worshiped from afar, he had still a means left whereby he could draw one step nearer to them.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

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

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(77 votes)   The Gentiles used to wonder at us because we cared so much about religious things about food and Sabbath and teaching the children Hebrew.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(75 votes)   But most of the Gentiles were ignorant.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(75 votes)   In the evening of the first day my father conducted us to the public baths.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(75 votes)   No, the czar did not want us in the schools.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(74 votes)   First, you had to have a tutor at home, who prepared you and talked all the time about the examination you would have to pass, till you were scared.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(73 votes)   One positive command he gave us: You shall love and honor your emperor. In every congregation a prayer must be said for the czar's health, or the chief of police would close the synagogue.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(72 votes)   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
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(72 votes)   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
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(71 votes)   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
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website

(71 votes)   The czar was always sending us commands - you shall not do this and you shall not do that - till there was very little left that we might do, except pay tribute and die.

Mary Antin
Russian, Activist Quotes

Rate this quote: (bad)<> (good)
copy to your blog, myspace, or website