They're ugly, but those are the facts of life.
Harper LeeRead
That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you hear?
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of accepting and nurturing children’s natural curiosity and behaviors.
In this quote, Harper Lee highlights the necessity of allowing children the freedom to explore their environment, even if their actions may seem unconventional or undesirable to adults. It suggests that connection and understanding in a child's development are more critical than strict adherence to adult norms, thereby encouraging a playful and accepting approach to parenting and relationships with children.
In practice
A parenting workshop focused on letting children express themselves creatively.
They're ugly, but those are the facts of life.
It's better to be silent than to be a fool.
Don’t talk like that, Dill,” said Aunt Alexandra. “It’s not becoming to a child. It’s – cynical.” “I ain’t cynical, Miss Alexandra. Tellin’ the truth’s not cynical, is it?” “The way you tell it, it is.
With him, life was routine; without him, life was unbearable.
He turned out the light and went into Jem's room. He would be there all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.
You can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family, an' they're still kin to you no matter whether you acknowledge 'em or not, and it makes you look right silly when you don't.
The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making.
Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial...C hristianity does not therefore depreciate marriage, it sanctifies it.
Man is a knot into which relationships are tied.
Parents need to listen as much to their kids as they do to them: "The first duty of love is to listen."
I cannot love thee; thou 'rt worse than thy brother. Go, say thy prayers, child, and ask God's pardon. I doubt thy mother and I must rue that we ever reared thee!
When we were arguing on my twenty-fourth birthday, she left the kitchen, came back with a pistol, and fired it at me five times from right across the table. But she missed. It wasn't my life she was after. It was more. She wanted to eat my heart and be lost in the desert with what she'd done, she wanted to fall on her knees and give birth from it, she wanted to hurt me as only a child can be hurt by its mother.
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