Jeannette Walls famous 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.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Hate #Acceptance #People

Horses were never wrong. They always did what they did for a reason, and it was up to you to figure it out.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Horse #Animal #Choices

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

#Summer #Light #Each Day

Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Angel #Perfection #Steps

When someone's wounded, the first order of business is to stop the bleeding. You can figure out later how best to help them heal.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Order #Firsts #Bleeding

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

#Sunrise #Watches #Want

You can't cling to the side your whole life, that one lesson every parent needs to teach a child is "If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim
-- Jeannette Walls

#Children #Parent #Swim

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

#Needs #Pieces #World

Those shining stars, he liked to point out, were one of the special treats for people like us who lived out in the wilderness. Rich city folks, he'd say, lived in fancy apartments, but their air was so polluted they couldn't even see the stars. We'd have to be out of our minds to want to trade places with any of them.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Stars #Cities #Air

She wore tight corsets to give her a teeny waist - I helped her lace them up - but they had the effect of causing her to faint. Mom called it the vapors and said it was a sign of her high breeding and delicate nature. I thought it was a sign that the corset made it hard to breathe.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Mom #Giving #Lace

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

#Drama #Tragedy #Littles

I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even the people who seemed to have it all had their secrets.
-- Jeannette Walls

#People #Perfect #Secret

Most important thing in life is learning how to fall.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Life #Fall #Important

sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it
-- Jeannette Walls

#Book #Track #Library

The women I know with strong personalities, the ones who might have become generals or the heads of companies if they were men, become teachers. Teaching is a calling, too. And I've always thought that teachers in their way are holy--angles leading their flocks out of the darkness.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Teacher #Strong #Teaching

...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.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Dad #School #Kids

If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Mother #Want #Like A Mother

Once you'd resolved to go, there was nothing to it at all.
-- Jeannette Walls

If you don't want to sink, you better figure out how to swim
-- Jeannette Walls

#Swim #Want #Figures

Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Littles #Needs #Helping

....he said it was interesting. He used the word 'textured'. He said 'smooth' is boring but 'textured' was interesting, and the scar meant that I was stronger than whatever had tried to hurt me.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Hurt #Interesting #Stronger

Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Luck #Too Much #Spirit

No one expected you to amount to much," she told me. "Lori was the smart one, Maureen the pretty one, and Brian the brave one. You never had much going for you except that you always worked hard.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Smart #Brave #Brian

One time I saw a tiny Joshua tree sapling growing not too far from the old tree. I wanted to dig it up and replant it near our house. I told Mom that I would protect it from the wind and water it every day so that it could grow nice and tall and straight. Mom frowned at me. "You'd be destroying what makes it special," she said. "It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Mom #Nice #Struggle

The dangerous falls were the ones that happened so fast you didn't have time to react
-- Jeannette Walls

#Fall #Dangerous

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.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Running #People #Monsters

Mom could say that in hindsight, but it seemed to me that when you were in the middle of something, it was awful hard to figure out what part of it was God's will and what wasn't.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Mom #Awful #Hindsight

All seasons have something to offer
-- Jeannette Walls

#Offers

Interesting people always have a past.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Past #People #Interesting

Living there [Horse Mesa] was like living in a natural cathedral. Waking up every morning, you walked outside and looked down at the blue lake, then up at the sandstone cliffs--those awe-inspiring layers of red and yellow rock shaped over the millennia, with dozens of black-streaked crevices that temporarily became waterfalls after rainstorms.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Morning #Horse #Yellow

New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Unfriendly

Confidence doesn't come from thinking you're perfect or flawless. That's arrogance. Confidence comes from appreciating the beauty of your texture.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Thinking #Appreciate #Perfect

If you had weak eyes, they needed exercise to get strong. Glasses were like crutches. They prevented people with feeble eyes from seeing the world on their own.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Strong #Eye #Exercise

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

#Hands #Play #Different

She never felt sorry for herself, and that was something I decided I admired most in people.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Sorry #People #Admiration

I hate Erma," I told Mom... "You have to show compassion for her..." She added that you should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. "Everyone has something good about them," she said. "You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that." "Oh yeah?" I said. "How about Hitler? What was his redeeming quality?" "Hitler loved dogs," Mom said without hesitation.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Mom #Dog #Hate

It's really not that hard to put food on the table if that's what you decide to do.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Tables

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.
-- Jeannette Walls

#College #People #Degrees

You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Horse #Winning #Thinking

Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Running #People #Watches

She had her addictions and one of them was reading.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Reading #Addiction

It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it its beauty.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Struggle #Giving #Tree

Life there was hard and it made people hard.
-- Jeannette Walls

#People #Made

Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are
-- Jeannette Walls

#Thinking #People #Care

Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Get Better #Sometimes

Don't worry, God understands,' Mom said. 'He knows that your father is a cross we must bear.
-- Jeannette Walls

#Mom #Father #Worry