They're ugly, but those are the facts of life.
Harper LeeRead
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.
Interpretation
Friends are chosen, but family is given and is always part of you, regardless of your relationship with them.
This quote highlights the idea that while we have the freedom to select our friends, our family is something we do not choose. No matter how we perceive our family members, they will always be a part of us, and rejecting or ignoring them can come off as foolish, as the bonds of family are intrinsic and unbreakable.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of family ties at a reunion.
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.
We're paying the highest tribute you can pay a man. We trust him to do right. It's that simple.
My grandmom worked as a maid for most of her life, and she worked in the tobacco and the cotton fields, whatever she could get.
When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing.
I still can’t say whether I ever want children….I can only say how I feel now--grateful to be on my own. I also know that I won’t go forth and have children just in case I might regret missing it later in life; I don’t think this is a strong enough motivation to bring more babies onto the earth.
Family life itself, that safest, most traditional, most approved of female choices, is not a sanctuary: It is, perpetually, a dangerous place.
One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to.
I regret not taking my 83-year-old mother to the Oscars the year I won. She deserved the Oscar for giving up so much for me.
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