Child Of Immigrants Quotes & Sayings

To be the child of immigrants from Eastern Europe is in itself a special kind of experience; and an important one to an author. He has heard two languages through childhood, the one spoken with ease at home, and the other spoken with ease in the streets and at school, but spoken poorly at home. — Delmore Schwartz

The greatest justification for travel is not self-improvement but rather performing a vanishing act, disappearing without a trace. — Paul Theroux

My mother and my father were illiterate immigrants from Russia. When I was a child they were constantly amazed that I could go to a building and take a book on any subject. They couldn't believe this access to knowledge we have here in America. They couldn't believe that it was free. — Kirk Douglas

I was a very sickly child. My parents were immigrants. They were not decorous. They were not discreet. They always thought I was gonna die. — Maurice Sendak

I'm child of immigrants. — John Barrasso

America is not a democracy, it's an absolute monarchy ruled by King Kid. In a nation of immigrants, the child is automatically more of an American than his parents. Americans regard children as what Mr. Hudson in Upstairs, Downstairs called betters. Aping their betters, American adults do their best to turn themselves into children. Puerility exercises droit de seigneur everywhere. — Florence King

By the late 20th century, the idea that parents can harm their children by abusing and neglecting them (which is true) grew into the idea that parents can mold their children's intelligence, personalities, social skills, and mental disorders (which is not). Why not? Consider the fact that children of immigrants end up with the accent, values, and norms of their peers, not of their parents. That tells us that children are socialized in their peer group rather than in their families: it takes a village to raise a child. And studies of adopted children have found that they end up with personalities and IQ scores that are correlated with those of their biological siblings but uncorrelated with those of their adopted siblings. That tells us that adult personality and intelligence are shaped by genes, and also by chance (since the correlations are far from perfect, even among identical twins), but are not shaped by parents, at least not by anything they do with all their children. — Steven Pinker

There's nothing more true in being a child of a diaspora, a child of immigrants. We're completely new to our parents. We're not something they can ever understand. And it's not as if we are ever going to be accepted. We're accepted as long as we conform to what we are expected to be, and I'm sure that's not any different for anyone else. — Junot Diaz

She always called him Luca, in the Italian manner, and said it with that funny trans-European intonation, the accent oddly placed on the first syllable: 'Where's Loo-ka?', just like Audrey Hepburn saying, 'Take the pic-ture,' in Funny Face. — Adam Gopnik

When you name your child after a grotesque gigantic creature known for slaughtering hundreds of innocents for the sole purpose of entertainment (okay so they were illegal immigrants who entered his realm) you must have a slight idea how that would turn out. — Cyma Rizwaan Khan

Every day I wear my Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth medallions around my neck. When I think I'm having a bad day, I try to think about their day, and I get up. — Marian Wright Edelman

All persecution is a sign of fear; for if we did not fear the power of an opinion different from our own, we should not mind others holding it. — Phyllis Bottome

I'm never going to be fat - never again. I'm going to make it easy on my pallbearers. — Al Sharpton

Part of the creative journey for me was not to come up the conventional route. I didn't go through drama school. I chose not to. I came from a very working-class area, a child of Nigerian immigrants. — DeObia Oparei

The principle suffering of the poor is shame and disgrace. It is a toxic shame -- a global sense of failure of the whole self. This shame can seep so deep down... To this end, one hopes (against all human inclination) to model not the "one false move" God but the "no matter whatness" of God. You seek to imitate the kind of God you believe in, where disappointment is, well, Greek to Him. You strive to live the black spiritual that says, "God looks beyond our fault and sees our need. — Gregory J. Boyle

Intention implies assuming you can and have every right to achieve your ambition and that you are powerful enough to make it happen. — Gloria Feldt

We had the longest kisses under the Acacia tree. — Avijeet Das

When people see Barack Obama, they don't necessarily see an African-American president. They see someone who is a child of immigrants. They see someone whose family has worked hard and struggled. And they see many similarities between themselves and Barack Obama. — Grace Meng

There was nothing common about him, first impressions be damned. Behind those spectacles lurked something feral and untamable. He hadn't moved from his chair, and yet she felt a little tickle in her palms. A catch in her breath. His eyes were too sharp, his expression far too even. — Courtney Milan

Thomas Young was born in 1731 in upstate New York. The child of impoverished Irish immigrants, he grew up in a log cabin without the benefit of a formal education. But he was an avid reader who began collecting books at a young age and eventually amassed one of the finest personal libraries in New England. — Matthew Stewart

I'm a child of immigrants. That is the history of this country. Immigration is good and important for our country. Legal immigration needs to really be modernized. — John Barrasso

I always find heroes who are just like me,
I forget they're only human, and like me, broken — Terrence Alonzo Craft

The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don't. — Joshua Becker