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Jeannette Walls

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Famous Jeannette Walls Quotes

“...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.”

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Book:Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
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“As I sat down, though, I realized that you can get used to certain luxuries that you start to think they're necessities, but when you have to forgo them, you come to see that you don't need them after all. There was a big difference between needing things and wanting things--though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart--and at the ranch, I could see, we have pretty much everything we'd need but precious little else.”

PeopleThinkingNeedsLittlesTwoBigsUsedCertainDifferencesTroubleI RealizedLuxurySat
Book:Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel
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“Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior.”

PeopleChildrenSaidSoulBodyKidsYoungSufferingToo MuchCryMomBehaviorNegativeYour BodyWorriedYour SoulCriedIgnoredReinforcementFussingPositive ReinforcementNegative Behavior
Book:The Glass Castle: A Memoir
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“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.”

PeopleWantMindStarsCitiesRichAirSpecialTreatsTradeShiningFolksFancyWildernessApartmentShining Star
Book:The Glass Castle: A Memoir
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“Since Mom wasn't exactly the most useful person in the world, one lesson I learned at an early age was how to get things done, and this was a source of both amazement and concern for Mom, who considered my behavior unladylike but also counted on me. "I never knew a girl to have such gumption," she'd say. "But I'm not too sure it's a good thing.”

WorldPersonsDoneAgeGirlSourceMomLessonsBehaviorConcernGood ThingsThings DoneAmazementGumption
Author:Jeannette Walls
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“The way Mom saw it, women should let menfolk do the work because it made them feel more manly. That notion only made sense if you had a strong man willing to step up and get things done, and between Dad's gimp, Buster's elaborate excuses, and Apache's tendency to disappear, it was often up to me to keep the place from falling apart. But even when everyone was pitching in, we never got out from under all the work. I loved that ranch, though sometimes it did seem that instead of us owning the place, the place owned us.”

IfsMenWayFeelsShouldMadeSometimesDoneSeemsFallStrongSexStepsSawsWillingMomDadNotionExcuseDisappearTendenciesFalling ApartThings DonePitchingStep UpManlyStrong ManBustersBattle Of The Sexes
Author:Jeannette Walls
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