Quotes About Community

I don't think there's such a thing as an easy life. There's always going to be hard work, and there will always be misfortunes we can't control lurking out at the edges—storms, sickness, wolves. But there is such a thing as a good life, and I think we have one here.

The people of Ember were just as grubby as the people of Sparks; everyone looked more or less the same.

You know, son, I don't think there's such a thing as an easy life. There's always going to be hard work, and there will always be misfortunes we can't control lurking out at the edges - storms, sickness, wolves. But there is such a thing as a good life, and I think we have one here -Mr. Harrow

Church of the Fiery Vision.

The main thing," she said, "is this: we will refuse to be each other's enemies. We will renounce violence, which is so easy to start but so hard to control. We will build a place where we can all live in peace. If we hold to that, everything is possible.

This world was huge. There must be another place in it for the people of Ember.

Had I ever spent the day in our neighborhood public high school as an invisible woman while my children were still enrolled there, I no doubt would have insisted on home schooling.

sometimes after I finished a particularly good book, I had the urge to get the library card, find out who else had read the book, and track them down to talk about it

New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly.

You know you're down and out when Okies laugh at you,' she said. With our garbage bag taped window, our tied down hood, and art supplies strapped to the roof, we'd out-Okied the Okies.

we fought a lot in welch. Not just to fend off our enemies but to fit in. Maybe it was because there was so little to do in Welch; Maybe it was because life there was hard and it made the people hard...maybe it was because mining was dangerous and cramped and dirty work and it put all the miners in bad moods and they came home and took it out on their wives, who took it out on their kids, who took it out on other kids.

You know you're down and out when the Okies laugh at you.

had all thirteen families in Horse Mesa register to vote, and on election day, Jim drove me into Tortilla Flats. I kept the ballots in one hand and my pearl-handled revolver in the other, daring anyone to try to hijack democracy by stealing the twenty-six votes I had been entrusted with. "Hold on, everyone!" I declared when I arrived. "The votes from Horse Mesa are here, and I'm proud to announce we had one hundred percent turnout.

Mom waved at the crowd. "You know you're down and out when Okies laugh at you," she said. With our garbage-bag-taped window, our roped-down hood, and the art supplies tied to the roof, we'd out-Okied the Okies. The thought gave her a fit of the giggles.

I've always liked Abraham, a preacher from Hopewell Road whose name often appears in "Among the Colored People," a column in the Claiborne Gazette, but some folk complain that Abraham is a little too quick to speak his mind, not properly deferential, thinks the rules don't apply to him, doesn't know his place—he won't let his wife clean the houses of white folks

The other kids stared at us whispering among themselves, but they also kept distance, as if they hadn't decided whether we were predators or prey.

Besides, I'm not taking anything that isn't mine, not forcing folk to do anything they don't want to do, just helping out the people of Claiborne County who through no fault of their own are in an awful bind. Obey the law and starve. Or break the law and eat. Not a lot to ponder there.

L'enfer, c'est les autres.

Je suis seul au milieu de ces voix joyeuses et raisonnables. Tous ces types passent leur temps à s'expliquer, à reconnaître avec bonheur qu'ils sont du même avis. Quelle importance ils attachent, mon Dieu, à penser tous ensemble les mêmes choses.

All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other.

Be self-indulgent, and those who are also self-indulgent will like you. Tear your neighbor to pieces, and the other neighbors will laugh. But if you beat your soul, all souls will cry out.

For a moment I wondered if I were not going to love humanity. But, after all, it was their Sunday, not mine.

all of us abandon ourselves to existence, because we were among ourselves, only among ourselves, it has taken us unawares, in the disorder, the day to day drift: I am ashamed for myself and for what exists in front of it.

Unity may be achieved under a strong man, but the time comes when a people must stop looking for a savior and take responsibility for their own future.