Jeannette Walls Quotes

It's very easy to look at the world and think this is all so cruel and so mean. It's important to not become bitter from it.

My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.

It's like growing lotus flowers. You cannot grow lotus flowers on marble. You have to grow them on the mud. Without mud you cannot have lotus flowers. Without suffering, you have no way to learn how to be understanding and compassionate.

Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder.

Hard times make you bitter or make you more compassionate.

A good thing to remember is somebody's got it a lot worse than we do.

I learned compassion from being discriminated against. Everything bad that's ever happened to me has taught me compassion.

Please remember, no matter what you go through in life, somebody else might have it harder.

We're all human beings, and we all have the same problems. I do remember how blessed I am, and no matter how bad things are, they can always get worse.

I'm a forgiver. I might not forget, but I forgive. My mother, father and older brother always told me: 'Don't hold grudges. If you do that, you don't lower yourself down to your adversary. Just treat people the way you want to be treated.' I honestly think that's why I was able to survive and have some success.

I don't resent anything.

Nobody's life is a bed of roses. We all have crosses to bear, and we all just do our best. I would never claim to have the worst situation. There are many widows, and many people dying of AIDS, many people killed in Lebanon, people starving all over the planet. So we have to count our lucky stars.

If bitterness wants to get into the act, I offer it a cookie or a gumdrop.

No matter how bad you think you have it, there's always - always somebody who's got it way, way worse.

For myself, suffering doesnt make me a good person; it makes me selfish. Why do we think that people who have less should find it edifying?

I've learned sometimes you just have to take the bad from people.

To find gratitude and generosity when you could reasonably find hurt and resentment will surprise you. It will be so surprising because you will see so much of the opposite: people who have much more than others yet who react with anger when one advantage is lost or with resentment when an added gift is denied.

Fighting bitterness can be a full-time job.

There are a lot of ups and downs. But there are always people who have it worse.

Misery is, by her own nature, a passing phase of sorrow, one that does not linger uninvited. Her sojourns seem to be part of life's required curriculum, perhaps because Misery endows us with compassion and empathy.

When you start to think of revenge, you start to think of hate. I don't believe in hating people. It's a retrogressive thing.

I learned that my upbringing was rough, but there's other people out there where their upbringing is even worse than mine. It just gives you even more of a reason to want to help.

I think about my mom and the things she went through, and things could always be a lot worse.

Nobody gets through life without losing a few things on the way.

Trials make more room for consolation. There is nothing that makes a man have a big heart like a great trial. I always find that little, miserable people, whose hearts are about the size of a grain of mustard seed, never have had much to try them. I have found that those people who have no sympathy for their fellows — who never weep for the sorrows of others — very seldom have had any woes of their own. Great hearts can only be made by great troubles.