Poor people who had escaped from poverty as I had, feared it, hated it and fled from it all their lives. Those born rich could afford to be touched by it. Anzia Yezierska More Quotes by Anzia Yezierska More Quotes From Anzia Yezierska When I only begin to read, I forget I'm on this world. It lifts me on wings with high thoughts. Anzia Yezierska wings forget world As one of the dumb, voiceless ones I speak. One of the millions of immigrants beating, beating out their hearts at your gates for a breath of understanding. Anzia Yezierska understanding dumb heart Without comprehension, the immigrant would forever remain shut - a stranger in America. Until America can release the heart as well as train the hand of the immigrant, he would forever remain driven back upon himself, corroded by the very richness of the unused gifts within his soul. Anzia Yezierska heart hands america Like all people who have nothing, I lived on dreams. Anzia Yezierska dream people At last I came to college. I rushed for it with the outstretched arms of youth's aching hunger to give and take of life's deepest, and highest, and I came against the solid wall of the well-fed, well-dressed world - the frigid whitewashed wall of cleanliness. ... How I pinched, and scraped, and starved myself, to save enough to come to college! Every cent of the tuition fee I paid was drops of sweat and blood from underpaid laundry work. And what did I get for it? A crushed spirit, a broken heart, a stinging sense of poverty that I never felt before. Anzia Yezierska wall disappointment education In America, money takes the place of God. Anzia Yezierska united-states money america The power that makes grass grow, fruit ripen, and guides the bird in flight is in us all. Anzia Yezierska flight fruit bird I was so obsessed and consumed with my grievances that I could not get away from myself and think things out in the light. I was in the grip of that blinding, destructive, terrible thing -- righteous indignation. Anzia Yezierska obsessed light thinking I'm one of the millions of immigrant children, children of loneliness, wandering between worlds that are at once too old and too new to live in. Anzia Yezierska loneliness children world The only compensation for the artist is the chance to feed hungry hearts. Anzia Yezierska chance artist heart Those who were high go down low, and those who've been low go up higher. Anzia Yezierska higher lows A man is free to go up as high as he can reach up to; but I, with all my style and pep, can't get a man my equal because a girl is always judged by her mother. Anzia Yezierska girl mother men I too was frightened the first time I felt I hated my father. I felt like a criminal. But could I help it what was inside of me? I had to feel what I felt even if it killed me. Anzia Yezierska criminals father firsts I tasted the bread and wine of equality. Anzia Yezierska equality wine bread This fire in me, it's not just the hunger of a woman for a man - it's the hunger of all my people back of me, from all ages, for light, for the life higher! Anzia Yezierska passion fire men The world is a wheel always turning. Anzia Yezierska wheels world Though my father was poor and had nothing, the Torah, the poetry of prophets, was his daily bread. Anzia Yezierska poor bread father If I had never met him I would have dreamed him into being. Anzia Yezierska mets dream love Woe is me! Bitter is me! For what is my life? Why didn't the ship go under and drown me before I came to America? Anzia Yezierska woe-is-me ships america Give a beggar a dime and he'll bless you. Give him a dollar and he'll curse you for withholding the rest of your fortune. Poverty is a bag with a hole at the bottom. Anzia Yezierska poverty charity giving
