Gloria Whelan

“Even our recreation was scheduled. There was no time to look for birds or wander into the nearby woods. We were put into teams and sent into violent pursuit of a helpless ball.”

“They were all brilliant. They wrote books and painted pictures, and if they ever stopped talking, which I was sure they would never do, they planned to change the world.”

“I looked forward to making friends at school, but I had come late and friendships had already been formed. I couldn’t find my way into their world. They seemed to have a secret code I couldn’t decipher.”

“But what doesn’t die is the love we give to others. There is no end to that.”

“With a mind as bright as yours you will want to find a proper school to continue your education. ..... You must continue the education your mother began. Young women must have an education.”

“I thought I understood what was best. I knew too little and believed too soon.”

“You're making yourself too important. Guilt comes from feeling we're at the center of the universe. We're not.”

“I have qualms and wonder what a qualm would look like if you painted it -- probably like a bowl of melting ice cream or a dish of Jell-o just before it sets.”

“I felt as if I had no control over what I said, as if loathsome, ugly words were waiting inside me like snakes and toads looking for a chance to sneak out before I could stop them.”

“I liked having some time to myself. Our family was such a close one, you could get smothered. Of course, we didn't always agree with one another. Sometimes I quarreled with my brother and sisters, but I couldn't remember hating anyone for more than five minutes.”

“People long to go backward in their imagination as well as forward. We don't wish simply to exist forever in some future; we wish to have existed in some distant past.”

“But will you not have a house to care for? Meals to cook? Children whining for this or that? Will you have time for the work?" "I'll make time," I promised. "The house will not always be so clean, the cooking may be a little hasty, and the whining children will sit on my lap and I'll sing to them while I work.”

“It is hard to give up what you know for what you don’t know.”