Frank McCourt Quotes

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

The United States is considered a puritanical society by many Western nations. For example, they can't believe we hassle public servants like General David Petraeus because he had a mistress. In France, if a powerful man doesn't have a mistress, he's considered a wimp.

There are certain people you're allowed to pick apart and certain people you're not.

Always obey your parents - when they are present.

What thou meanest by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, whilst thou who dost it with a great fleet art styled emperor.

Maura had decided sometime before Blue's birth that it was barbaric to order children about, and so Blue had grown up surrounded by imperative question marks.

The lovely Hazard girls', they used to call them. Huh. Lovely is as lovely does; if they looked like what they behave like, they'd frighten little children.

Whether we like it or not, asking is the rule of the kingdom

Everybody who tells you how to act has whiskey on their breath.

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.

Adolescence begins when children stop asking questions-because they know all the answers.

A Message to Children Who Have Read This Book - When you grow up and have children of your own, do please remember something important: a stodgy parent is no fun at all. What a child wants and deserves is a parent who is SPARKY.

My child, it will be better for you if you accept my decisions without complaint. Do not ask me to defend my actions or to explain why one person is favored and another seems slighted. The answers to these questions go far beyond your comprehension.

Authority in science exists to be questioned, since heresy is the spring from which new ideas flow.

I find it shocking that anybody can be brought down in D.C. for gossip, ostensibly. I thought that was the coin of the realm there. That's like getting hit with lightning on a cloudless day.

Most of the things I'm talking about are essential human rights. I don't think it should be political to say that children should be able to have lunch at school when their families can't afford to feed them properly, or to say women should have access to basic health care, or that Muslims deserve equal protection under the law, or police shouldn't be killing black people and getting away with it - it shouldn't be a political thing to say. A lot of people on the right standing behind Christian values should be standing with us, because equality is a basic tenet of Christianity.

This is how it is today: The teachers are afraid of the principals. The principals are afraid of the superintendents. The superintendents are afraid of the board of education. The board is afraid of the parents. The parents are afraid of the children. The children are afraid of nothing!

The most important influence on a child is the character of its parents, rather than this or that single event.

In Hawaii, if you're invited to dinner, it's assumed that the children are invited as well. On the islands, no one treats children like they're not part of the conversation. People talk to children as people and include them in adventures and conversations.

Lawless schools produce lawless children.

If people aren't educated, they can't question. If they can't question, they can't change anything, which is great for the status quo and all the people who can question them at their own level.

I like going to schools and telling classes that when I was a child, I failed every "will this kid become a writer" test.

People have to live by rules in the world. Why do we pretend in school that they don't?

For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.