“Being a Boy Scout saved my life. I was a bookish, introverted kid, shy and withdrawn, unhappy and easily bullied. I was also gay, although I didn't know it yet. I should've been miserable. But being a scout got me out of myself and into the world.” KnowsWorldShouldKidsBoysGaySavedUnhappyMiserableShyBulliedIntrovertedBoy Scout Author:Christopher Bram
“If somebody can create an absolute system of beliefs and rules of conduct that will guide a business man at eleven o'clock in the morning, a boy trying to select a career, a woman in an unhappy love affair--well then, surely no pragmatist will object. He insists only that philosophy shall come down to earth and be tried out there.” IfsMenTryingWellsPhilosophyEarthBeliefBoysCareersMorningObjectsAbsolutesAffairGuidesUnhappyClockSelectElevenLove AffairDown To EarthBusiness ManPragmatists Book:Drift and Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest Source: Drift and Mastery: An Attempt to Diagnose the Current Unrest
“Anyone who has read Yeats's wonderful Autobiography will remember his Sligo shabby, shadowed, half country and half sea, full of confused romance, superstition, poverty, eccentricity, unrecognized anachronism, passion and ignorance and the little boy's misery. Yeats was treated well but was bitterly unhappy; he prayed that he would die, and used often to say to himself: "When you are grown up, never talk as grown-up people do of the happiness of childhood.” PeopleWellsLittlesCountryRememberRomanceUsedDiesPassionHalfBoysPovertyWonderfulSeaChildhoodIgnoranceMiseryUnhappyTreatedConfusedSuperstitionsAutobiographyLittle BoysEccentricityShabbyYeatsAnachronism Author:Randall Jarrell
“Confronted with the unhappy facts of exclusion, we sometimes reassure ourselves by telling stories: the poor boys who made it, theblacks who became a "credit to their race," the women elected to high office, the handicapped who made "useful contributions" to our society.... Just as we believe in the self-sufficient family, we also believe that any child with enough grit and ability can escape poverty and make a rewarding life. But these stories and beliefs clearly reflect the exceptions.” BelieveChildrenMadeSelfSometimesEnoughFactsStoriesBeliefAbilityPoorRaceBoysPovertyOfficeCreditUnhappyMade ItSufficientContributionExceptionOur SocietyGritExclusionTelling StoriesSelf SufficientHandicappedPoor Boy Book:All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure Source: All Our Children: The American Family Under Pressure
“When I was a boy, I would read those postcards and know exactly why my father was doing what he was doing: he was taking a stab at greatness, that is, if greatness is simply another word for doing something different from what you were already doing--or maybe greatness is the thing we want to have so that other people will want to have us, or maybe greatness is merely the grail for our unhappy, striving selves, the thing we think we need but don't and can't get anyway.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWantNeedsDifferentSelfFatherBoysGreatnessStriveUnhappyPostcards Author:Brock Clarke
“Thank God that Bumble-Ardy's parents are dead so we don't have to wonder what they did to him. We only know that they were famous, and famous people have unhappy children for the most part. They don't have the time to take care of them. So he's a troubled pig-boy, a kid you've got to watch.” PeopleKnowsChildrenCareKidsParentWonderBoysWatchesTake CareUnhappyThank GodPigs Author:Maurice Sendak