Unsheltered Quotes

“I suppose it is in our nature,” she said finally. “When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Unsheltered, I live in daylight. And like the wandering bird I rest in thee.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“This particular brand of tyrant, though. Yikes,” Willa said. “I can’t take him seriously. He’s going to burn out before the first primary.” “Don’t count on it. There’s a lot of white folks out there hanging on to their God-given right to look down on some other class of people. They feel it slipping away and they’re scared. This guy says he’s bringing back yesterday, even if he has to use brass knuckles to do it, and drag women back to the cave by their hair. He’s a bully, everybody knows that. But he’s their bully.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“A mother can be only as happy as her unhappiest child.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Plus,” Tig said, “it reminds me to be patient. Seeing all these people that have passed on. I get frustrated sometimes, waiting.” “For people to die?” “Yeah. To be honest. The guys in charge of everything right now are so old. They really are, Mom. Older than you. They figured out the meaning of life in, I guess, the nineteen fifties and sixties. When it looked like there would always be plenty of everything.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“The thing is, Mom, the secret of happiness is low expectations. That’s a good reminder, right there. If you didn’t lose your husband and kids all in one year, smile! You’re ahead of the game.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Holding and synthesizing information in your brain creates your personality. You’re surrendering your personality to an electronic device in your pocket.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Really it was her mother she’d wanted to call right after the bad news, or in the middle of it, while Mr. Petrofaccio was blowing his nose. First thing in the morning, last thing at night, whenever a fight with Tig left her in pieces, it had been her mother who put Willa back together. When someone mattered like that, you didn’t lose her at death. You lost her as you kept living.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“A person can succeed and fail at the same time. Maybe letting me down was your way of getting me to be me.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“I suppose it is in our nature,” she said finally. “When men fear the loss of what they know, they will follow any tyrant who promises to restore the old order.” “If that is our nature, then nature is madness. These are more dangerous times than we ever have known.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“You and I are not like other people. We perceive infinite nature as a fascination, not a threat to our sovereignty.... When the nuisance of old mythologies falls away from us, we may see with new eyes.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Zeke embodied the contradiction of his generation: jaded about the fate of the world, idealistic about personal prospects.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“His confidence was enviable and maddening. Most of the time she didn’t want him to solve or contradict her worries, she just needed him to listen and agree with her on the awfulness at hand. This was a principle of marriage she’d explained many times.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“The Middle East and North Africa are almost out of water. Asia’s underwater. Syria is dystopian, Somalia, Bangladesh, dystopian. Everybody’s getting weather that never happened before. Melting permafrost means we’ve got like, a minute to turn this mess around, or else it’s going to stop us.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“A mother’s unfulfilled ambitions lie heaviest on her daughters.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“White is not an origin. It’s a mental construct of privilege.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Sorry to tell you, but that's a very old chestnut. My mother used to say when God slams a door on you, he opens a window.'

Tig gave this two seconds of respectful consideration before rejecting it. 'No, that's not the same. I'm saying when God slams a door on you it's probably a shitstorm. You're going to end up in rubble. But it's okay because without all that crap overhead, you're standing in the daylight.'

'Without a roof over your head, it kind of feels like you might die.'

'Yeah, but you might not. For sure you won't find your way out of the mess if you keep picking up bricks and stuffing them in your pockets. What you have to do is look for blue sky.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“If trained to nature from an early age, could a mind be freed from its vendetta against the world's creatures?”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“that mothers’ and daughters’ hearts can be crushed so repeatedly without learning to defend themselves.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Beautiful people liked to claim looks didn’t matter, while throwing that currency around like novice bank robbers.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Thatcher wondered what task could be more wearisome than shoring up a stupid man’s confidence in his own wisdom.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“He got born in the historical moment of no more free lunch. Friends will probably count more than money, because wanting too much stuff is going to be toxic.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Without shelter, we stand in daylight.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Scientists are not like other people, sir. We cannot slam our portals. We have to follow evidence where it leads, even if no one likes that place. Even if it suggests that all we have ever believed might be mistaken.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“The guys in charge of everything right now are so old. They really are, Mom. Older than you. They figured out the meaning of life in, I guess, the nineteen fifties and sixties. When it looked like there would always be plenty of everything. And they’re applying that to now. It’s just so ridiculous.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“He said he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and people would still vote for him. Am I dreaming this?" Willa asked.
"No."
"No. He said that. It couldn't have been more than a week ago."
"Apparently he was right."
"Iano, nobody gets away with murder. You can't behave like a madman when you're running for public office. That kind of trash talk is supposed to end careers.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“He’s legitimizing personal greed as the principal religion of our country.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“The women of his family would become one with the earth’s creatures only by pressing the bones of whales against their rib cages until breathless.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered

“Crisis is opportunity.”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered