I can't go back. The past won't go away in this family. Frank McCourt More Quotes by Frank McCourt More Quotes From Frank McCourt You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace. Frank McCourt optimistic shoes inspirational It’s lovely to know that the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head. Frank McCourt lovely beautiful world Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale. Frank McCourt tales dance song Stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it. Frank McCourt empty-mind ashes house I don't believe in happiness anyway... it's too much of an American pastime, this search for happiness. Just forget happiness and enjoy your misery. Frank McCourt too-much happiness believe I learned the significance of my own insignificant life. Frank McCourt insignificant significance my-own I had to get rid of any idea of hell or any idea of the afterlife. That's what held me, kept me down. So now I just have nothing but contempt for the institution of the church. Frank McCourt afterlife church ideas A mother's love is a blessing No matter where you roam. Keep her while you have her, You'll miss her when she's gone -- Angela's Ashes. Frank McCourt blessing mother love-is He says, You have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can't make up an empty mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. You might be poor , your shoes might be broken , but your mind is a palace. Frank McCourt empty-mind shoes wisdom When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. Frank McCourt childhood catholic ordinary After a full belly all is poetry. Frank McCourt belly eating food We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely. Frank McCourt christmas kind memories You never know when you might come home and find Mam sitting by the fire chatting with a woman and a child, strangers. Always a woman and child. Mam finds them wandering the streets and if they ask, Could you spare a few pennies, miss? her heart breaks. She never has money so she invites them home for tea and a bit of fried bread and if it's a bad night she'll let them sleep by the fire on a pile of rags in the corner. The bread she gives them always means less for us and if we complain she says there are always people worse off and we can surely spare a little from what we have. Frank McCourt home heart children Keep scribbling! Something will happen. Frank McCourt happens I asked my dad what afflicted meant and he said 'Sickness son, and things that don't fit.' Frank McCourt sickness dad son The master says it's a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it's a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there's anyone in the world who would like us to live. My brothers are dead and my sister is dead and I wonder if they died for Ireland or for the Faith. Dad says they were too young to die for anything. Mam says it was disease and starvation and him never having a job. Dad says, Och, Angela, puts on his cap, and goes for a long walk. Frank McCourt dad brother jobs I don't absolve my father completely of his responsibility for what he did to us I feel compassion, maybe. He had his demons. But I still can't understand how a man can walk away from children. And leave them to starve, as we nearly did, if it wasn't for my mother going out and begging. Frank McCourt mother father children The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher. Frank McCourt teacher I say, Billy, what’s the use in playing croquet when you’re doomed? He says, Frankie, what’s the use of not playing croquet when you’re doomed? Frank McCourt croquet doomed use Actually, my mother and Alfie came for three weeks Christmas vacation and stayed for 21 years. I guess my mother never went back because she was lonely. Frank McCourt christmas lonely mother
