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Half Broke Horses QUOTES

Half Broke Horses QUOTES

1 " Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

2 " If you want to be reminded of the love of the Lord, just watch the sunrise. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

3 " God deals us all different hands. How we play 'em is up to us. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

4 " Submitting seemed to me a lot like giving up. If God gave us the strength to bail- the gumption to try and save ourselves- isn't that what he wanted us to do? "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

5 " Everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

6 " ...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 , Half Broke Horses

7 " 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 , Half Broke Horses

8 " Most important thing in life is learning how to fall. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

9 " People are like animals. Some are happiest penned in, some need to roam free. You go to recognize what's in her nature and accept it. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

10 " I became known as Lily Casey, the mustang-breaking, poker-playing, horse-race-winning schoolmarm of Coconino County, and it wasn't half bad to be in place where no one had a problem with a woman having a moniker like that. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

11 " 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. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

12 " I could see why Archimedes got all excited. There was nothing finer than the feeling that came rushing through you when it clicked and you suddenly understood something that had puzzled you. It made you think it just might be possible to get a handle on this old world after all. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

13 " It (the sun) didn't really care how I felt, it was going to rise and set regardless of whether I noticed it, and if I was going to enjoy it, that was up to me. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

14 " 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 , Half Broke Horses

15 " You can't prepare for everything life's going to throw at you. And you can't avoid danger. It's there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit around wringing your hands about it, you'll out on all the adventure. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

16 " If you want to be treated like a mother, act like one. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

17 " 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 , Half Broke Horses

18 " Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

19 " The tree burst into color and we all gasped at the red, yellow, green, white and the blue lights boldly growing in the cold night, the only lights for miles around in the inmense darkness of the range. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses

20 " The water you kids were playing in, he said, had probably been to Africa and the North Pole. Genghis Khan or Saint Peter or even Jesus may have drunk it. Cleopatra might have bathed in it. Crazy Horse might have watered his pony with it. Sometimes water was liquid. Sometimes it was rock hard- ice. Sometimes it was soft- snow. Sometimes it was visible but weightless- clouds. And sometimes it was completely invisible- vapor- floating up into the the sky like the soals of dead people. There was nothing like water in the world, Jim said. It made the desert bloom but also turned rich bottomland into swamp. Without it we'd die, but it could also kill us, and that was why we loved it, even craved it, but also feared it. Never take water forgranted, Jim said. Always cherish it. Always beware of it. "

― Jeannette Walls , Half Broke Horses