Pearl S. Buck
(1892-1973)

American Writer & Philanthropist
National Women's Hall of Fame

birthdate: June 26
birthplace:
Hillsboro, West Virginia

QUOTES

CHILDREN
If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.

ELDERS
To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.

FAMILY
The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit. No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child. He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born.

FREEDOM
None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.

HUNGER
"A hungry man can't see right or wrong. He just sees food."

"Hunger makes a thief of any man."

"There will never cease to be ferment in the world unless people are sure of their food."

HOPE
Life without idealism is empty indeed.


KINDNESS
I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings.

LIVING A LIFE OF COMPASSION
You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.

Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.

TRUTH
The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.

YOUTH
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible - and achieve it, generation after generation.

 

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