Quotes About Resilience

Reading Group Guide "History has failed us, but no matter." How does the opening line reflect

They'd make a tasty broth from stones and bitterness.

It's my job to know what others don't. How did you know to make kimchi and sell it on a street corner to earn money? You knew because you wanted to live. I want to live, too, and if I want to live, I have to know things others don't. Now, I'm telling you something valuable.

Seeds, blood. How could you fight such hopeless ideas?

Man, life's going to keep pushing you around, but you have to keep playing.

Sunja and Yangjin were able to cook the sweets and handle the customers without him. It was never that busy then. It was a late fall afternoon, when business was exceedingly slow and the market women were busy talking with each other since there were so few customers;

Somewhere after being sorry, there had to be another day, and even after a conviction, there could be good in the judgement.

bad and went to work! Maybe there's

Hoonie used to listen carefully to all the men who brought him news, and he would nod, exhale resolutely, and then get up to take care of the chores. "No matter," he would say, "no matter." Whether China capitulated or avenged itself, the weeds would have to be pulled from the vegetable garden, rope sandals would need to be woven if they were to have shoes, and the thieves who tried often to steal their few chickens had to be kept away.

All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer—suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother—die suffering. Go-saeng—the word made her sick. What else was there besides this?

In America, everything seemed fixable, and in Japan, difficult problems were to be endured. Shoganai, shoganai. How many times had he lheard these words? It cannot be helped. His mother had apparently hated that expression, and suddenly he understood her rage against this cultural resignation that violated her beliefs and wishes. Pachinko, p456

she was sixteen years old, not a scared child.

History has failed almost everybody who is ordinary.

It had been eleven years since he'd died; the pain didn't go away, but its sharp edge had dulled and softened like sea glass.

In their long marriage, the wife gave birth to three sons, but only Hoonie, the eldest and the weakest one, survived. Hoonie was born with a cleft palate and a twisted foot; he was however, endowed with hefty shoulders, a squat build, and a gold complexion.

After losing four of his children and his wife to cholera five years ago, Shin found that he could not speak much about loss. Everything a person said sounded glib and foolish...His faith had not wavered, but his temperament had altered seemingly forever. It was as if a warm room had gotten cooler, but it was still the same room.

Pay attention: The ones who pay the shit tax are mostly people who were born in the wrong place and the wrong time and are hanging on to the planet by their broken fingernails. They don't even know the fucking rules of the game. You can't even get mad at 'em when they lose. Life just fucks and fucks and fucks bastards like that.

There are a lot of troubled young women in this world. We can't save them all.

but its sharp edge had dulled and softened like sea glass.

You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.

A woman's life is endless work and suffering. There is suffering and then more suffering. It's better to expect it, you know

What do you do with silence? Casey wondered. It was easier to yell back at her father. It was impossible to beat a person who refused to fight, who's never had a wish to win.

When she was a girl, she'd believed that she could work harder than anyone under any circumstances, but she no longer felt that way. Lately, Yangjin felt tired and impatient; small things bothered her. Aging was supposed to make you more patient, but in her case, she felt angrier.

Viver todos os dias na presença daqueles que se recusam a reconhecer sua humanidade exige muita coragem.