If you're a kid who is always on the outside hoping to be on the inside, you're watching a lot. You're trying to figure out how to become a normal person in a society that considers you weird.
Katherine PatersonRead
It was up to him to pay back to the world in beauty and caring what Leslie had loaned him in vision and strength.
Interpretation
What this quote means
We should express gratitude by contributing positively to the world in ways that reflect the support we've received from others.
This quote emphasizes the importance of reciprocity in life, suggesting that when someone provides us with inspiration, strength, or any form of support, it becomes our responsibility to repay that kindness through our actions. In this context, the speaker feels a moral obligation to give back to the community by manifesting beauty and compassion, thus highlighting a cycle of giving and receiving that enriches both the giver and the receiver.
Themes
GratitudeGivingServiceKindnessReciprocity
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about community service, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of giving back.
More from Katherine Paterson
All quotes βIt's such a thrill when an adult comes up to me and says, 'I read your book as a child and really loved it.' That's a tremendous compliment.
Katherine PatersonRead
She had tricked him. She had made him leave his old self behind and come into her world, and then before he was really at home in it but too late to go back, she had left him stranded there--like an astronaut wandering about on the moon. Alone.
Katherine PatersonRead
Children have to have access to books, and a lot of children can't go to a store and buy a book. We need not only our public libraries to be funded properly and staffed properly, but our school libraries. Many children can't get to a public library, and the only library they have is a school library.
Katherine PatersonRead
We are trying to communicate that which lies in our deepest heart, which has no words, which can only be hinted at through the means of a story. And somehow, miraculously, a story that comes from deep in my heart calls from a reader that which is deepest in his or her heart, and together from our secret hidden selves we create a story that neither of us could have told alone.
Katherine PatersonRead
The challenge for those of us who care about our faith and about a hurting world is to tell stories which will carry the words of grace and hope in their bones and sinews and not wear them like fancy dress.
Katherine PatersonRead
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