to know how to read is to light a lamp in the mind, to release the soul from prison, to open a gate to the universe." from Pavilion of Women page 292 Pearl S. Buck More Quotes by Pearl S. Buck More Quotes From Pearl S. Buck Profound as race prejudice is against the Negro American, it is not practically as far-reaching as the prejudice against women. For stripping away the sentimentality which makes Mother's Day and Best American Mother Contests, the truth is that women suffer all the effects of a minority. Pearl S. Buck race mother profound Chinese were bornwith an accumulated wisdom, a natural sophistication, an intelligent naivete, and unless they were transplanted too young, these qualities ripened in them.... If ever I am homesick for China, now that I am home in my own country, it is when I discover here no philosophy. Our people have opinions and creeds and prejudices and ideas but as yet no philosophy. Pearl S. Buck philosophical philosophy country Life is the wonder with which we are all infused. Pearl S. Buck life-is wonder I learned early to understand that there is no such condition in human affairs as absolute truth. There is only truth as people see it, and truth, even in fact, may be kaleidoscopic in its variety. The damage such perception did to me I have felt ever sinceI could never belong entirely to one side of any question. Pearl S. Buck perception truth people Because psychologists have been able to discover, exactly as in a slow-motion picture, the way the human creature acquires knowledge and habits, the normal child has been vastly helped by what the retarded have taught us. Pearl S. Buck taught-us able children Chinese are wise in comprehending without many words what is inevitable and inescapable and therefore only to be borne. Pearl S. Buck inevitable chinese wise I don't wait for moods - you'd never get anything done if you did. Pearl S. Buck mood done waiting I am always glad when any of my books can be put into an inexpensive edition, because I like to think that any people who might wish to read them can do so. Surely books ought to be within reach of everybody. Pearl S. Buck book people thinking when the people of any country choose peace at all costs, not even generals can make war. Pearl S. Buck war peace country There is no beauty without order. Pearl S. Buck order there is one word that can be the guide for your life- it is the word reciprocity. Pearl S. Buck reciprocity one-word guides though some men did not make war as others did, if they sold their goods for profit to the war-makers, did it make them better because the weapon was not in their own hands, if they had made the weapon and sold it and so put it into the hands of those used it upon the innocent? Pearl S. Buck men war hands For war to man, like childbirth to women, is simplifying in its emotions and activities. All the real problems of life can be put aside while the one thing is done and little thought is needed to do it. ... His hatreds can be expressed without censure, he can let his emotions run free, he can behave as dramatically, as heroically as he likes, and no one laughs at him. It is almost impossible for a man to behave heroically in the cool and ordinary times of peace. But in war anything is allowed him, he is praised and applauded and made much of, as women are excused and allowed for in pregnancy. Pearl S. Buck real running war War is the most devastating endemic and epidemic disease the human race has to endure, and yet too little has been done to discover and eliminate its cause by intelligent early control. Pearl S. Buck epidemics intelligent war The concept of 'Momism' is male nonsense. It is the refuge of a man seeking excuses for his own lack of virility. I have listened to many women in various countries, and I have never found a woman who willingly 'mothers' her husband. The very idea is repulsive to her. She wants to mother the children while they are young, but never their fathers. True, she may be forced into the role of mother by a man's weaknesses and childishness, and then she accepts the role with dignity and patience, or with anger and impatience, but always with a secret, profound sadness unexpressed and inexpressible. Pearl S. Buck mother country children Only very coarse persons wanted wars. Pearl S. Buck coarse wanted war The feeling one has after coming to know American women is that they are starving at their sources. Pearl S. Buck women united-states feelings I do not believe there is any important difference between men and women - certainly not as much as they may be between one woman and another or one man and another. Pearl S. Buck differences men believe you seem to grieve for what is not so ... and there is no need to let your heart run ahead into evils that may never come. Pearl S. Buck heart running grieving the vicious result of privilege is that the creature who receives it becomes incapacitated by it as by a disease. Pearl S. Buck privilege results disease
