Jacqueline Kelly Quotes & Sayings

Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really. — Jacqueline Kelly

When two people love each other, they do not comply and does not dominate, only complement each other. — Jacqueline Kelly

And then it came to me, like the first shocking glimpse of the sun's disk rising over the horizon, what it was I did want to do. It was so obvious that I wondered why I hadn't seen it before. I only had to say it aloud. Did I have the courage to do that? To reveal it in the open air? ( ... ) 'I think,' I said, then stopped. 'I think maybe I want to go to the university. — Jacqueline Kelly

That night, when SanJuanna had cleared the main course and brought dessert in, my mother called for quiet and said,
"Boys, I have an announcement to make. Your sister made the apple pies tonight. I'm sure we will all enjoy them very much."
"Can I learn how, ma'am?" said Jim Bowie.
"No, J.B. Boys don't bake pies," Mother said.
"Why not?" he said.
"They have wives who make pies for them."
"But I don't have a wife."
"Darling, I'm sure you will have a very nice one someday when you're older, and she'll make you many pies. Calpurnia, would you care to serve?"
Was there any way I could have a wife, too? I wondered as I cut through the browned C and promptly shattered the entire crust. — Jacqueline Kelly

Granddaddy had told me about the wasp that could opt to be male or female while in a larval stage. An interesting thought. I wondered why human children weren't given that option in their grub stage, say up through age five. With everything I had seen about the lives of boys and girls, I would definitely choose to be a boy grub. — Jacqueline Kelly

Lula," I said, "do you ever think about getting married?"
I guess I do. Doesn't everybody?"
You have to let your husband kiss you once you're married. And you have to kiss him back."
No," she said.
Yes." I nodded, as if I knew everything there was to know about husbands and wives kissing. "That's what they do together."
Do you have to?"
Oh, absolutely. It's the law."
I never heard of that law," she said dubiously.
It's true, it's Texas law," I said. — Jacqueline Kelly

The strongest people in the world are the ones who think they're weak. — Jacqueline Kelly

See, that's the thing about second chances. It's two people that are there for each other and support each other and care about each other no matter how much they want to deny it. It's about one person doing everything they can to make sure the other doesn't fall and vice-versa. Second chances are about holding on to that other persons hand no matter how hard they beg to let go. — Jacqueline Kelly

But my mother's life was a never-ending round of maintenance. Not one single thing did she ever achieve but that it had to be done all over again, one day or one week or one season later. Oh, the monotony. — Jacqueline Kelly

Could anything top the promise and potential of a blank page? What could be more satisfying? Never mind that it would soon be crammed with awkward penmanship, that my handwriting inevitably sloped downhill to the right-hand corner, that I blotted my ink, that my drawings never came out the way I saw them in my head. Never mind all that. What counted was possibility. You could live on possibility, at least for a while. — Jacqueline Kelly

They all knew this, but this didn't stop them from good-naturedly crowding around the front door every time it opened, every single time, despite the fact that they were never -EVER- let into the house. I loved this particularly fine thing about dogs: Despite a lifetime of denied entrance, hope never died in their hearts. — Jacqueline Kelly

I don't understand the modern educational system at all."
"Neither do I. We have to learn sewing and knitting and smocking. In Deportment, they make us walk around the room with a book on our heads."
Granddaddy said, "I find that actually reading the book is a much more effective way of absorbing. — Jacqueline Kelly

It was the first morning of the first day of the new century. Snow blanketed the ground. Anything was possible. — Jacqueline Kelly

What could I say? ( ... ) That I wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all? ( ... ) Encouraging me the way he had, knowing that there was no new century for me, no new life for this girl. — Jacqueline Kelly

One day I would have all the books in the world, shelves and shelves of them. I would live my life in a tower of books. I would read all day long and eat peaches. And if any young knights in armor dared to come calling on their white chargers and plead with me to let down my hair, I would pelt them with peach pits until they went home. — Jacqueline Kelly

I had never classified myself with other girls. I was not of their species; I was different. I had never thought my future would be like theirs. — Jacqueline Kelly

It means that we should celebrate today's failure because it is a clear sign that our voyage of discovery is not yet over. — Jacqueline Kelly

My grandfather had given me Mr. Darwin's book to read. He had given me the possibility of a different kind of life. but none of it mattered. Instead there was The Science of Housewifery for me. I was blind; I was pathetic. The century was about to change, but my own little life would not change with it. — Jacqueline Kelly

It is better to travel with hope in one's heart than to arrive in safety ... We should celebrate today's failure because it is a clear sign that our voyage of discovery is not yet over. The day the experiment succeeds is the day the experiment ends. And I inevitably find that the sadness of ending outweighs the celebration of success. — Jacqueline Kelly

It was too bad, but sometimes a little knowledge could ruin your whole day, or at least take off some of the shine. — Jacqueline Kelly

We had been so close to missing each other, he and I. He had turned out to be the greatest gift of all. — Jacqueline Kelly

I didn't want anyone getting close to me. I pushed people away. Built a wall around my heart to keep them out. I let one person take down the bricks, and I suppose it was a good idea, but, sometimes, he hurts me too. And it hurts so much worse then any other hurt I've felt because he is one of the very few that matter anymore. — Jacqueline Kelly

How sad to be the last of your kind, flashing your signal in the dark, alone, to nothingness. But I was not alone, was I? I had learned that there were others of my kind out there. — Jacqueline Kelly

I had never seen a real live dead person. — Jacqueline Kelly

On inspection it turned out to be a tiny toad, a quarter of an inch long, hopping mightily after an escaping millipede, itself no bigger than a thread, both going for all they were worth until they disappeared in the grass. Then a wolf spider, stratling in size and hairiness, streaked over the gravel, either chasing something smaller or being chased by something bigger, I couldn't tell which. I reckoned there must be a million minor dramas playing out around the place without ceasing. Oh, but they were hardly minor to the chaser and the chasee who were dealing in the coin of life and death. I was a mere bystander, an idler. They were playing for keeps. — Jacqueline Kelly

By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. — Jacqueline Kelly

Eww, he said. I almost said the same thing, but unlike my brother, I had been annealed in the furnace of Scientific Thought. Scientists do not say such things aloud (although we may think them from time to time). — Jacqueline Kelly

I don't have that many days left," he said as we sat together in the library. "Why would I want to spend them on matters of drainage and overdue accounts? I must husband my hours and spend every one of them wisely. I regret that I didn't come to this realization until I reached fifty years of age. Calpurnia, you would do well to adopt such an attitude at an earlier age. Spend each of your allotted hours with care. — Jacqueline Kelly

It was interesting that such a slight frame could contain so large a person. — Jacqueline Kelly

It turned out to be a young Dasypus novemcinctus, a nine-banded armadillo, about the size of a small loaf of bread. Although they were becoming more common in Texas, I'd never seen one up close before. Anatomically speaking, it resembled the unhappy melding of an anteater (the face), a mule (the ears), and a tortoise (the carapace). I thought it overall an unlucky creature in the looks department, but Granddaddy once said that to apply a human definition of beauty to an animal that had managed to thrive for millions of years was both unscientific and foolish. — Jacqueline Kelly

It's amazing what you can see when you just sit quietly and look. — Jacqueline Kelly

I put on my thickest red flannel nightie and dove into bed. Mercifully, SanJuanna had taken the chill off the sheets with a warming pan. I intended to lie there for a while and take stock of my life. That's what you do at the end of the century, don't you? I think I actually fell asleep right away and only dreamed I was taking stock. — Jacqueline Kelly