Justina Ireland Quotes

Sometimes you have to live down to people's expectations, Kate. If you can do that, you'll get much further in life.

Your grandma used to always tell me that just because something is over doesn't mean it wasn't successful. All things end at some point.

You're a heartbreaker, Katherine Devereaux."

"That has nothing to do with me and everything to do with them," I say, blowing on my coffee before sipping it. There's chicory in the brew and I drink it appreciatively while we walk. "I have already had to tell more than one of them that I am not interested in courtship, thinking about courtship, hearing about courtship, or talking about the possibility of courtship. What is it with men thinking every woman they meet must be half in love with them?

Momma used to say there were lots of ways to survive. Don't e afraid to pretend to be something you aren't, Jane. Some times a little subterfuge and chicanery is in order and the quickest way to achieve one's goal. It ain't hard to imagine Ida pretending to be just another dumb colored girl in order to make it out here. Survival by any means necessary.

The darkness agrees with me. It asks me to release it, as loud as a roar and as quiet as a whisper. I remember what my sister said long ago: You must control the darkness. You can't ever give in to it. But the shadows want to make me happy, and I deserve a little happiness

But I can't change the past; I can only push headlong into an uncertain future.

I don't need a spotlight to know a snitch when I see one.

I smile tightly, but say nothing. He is trying to protect me, in the simple way men are always trying to protect women: by stealing away their freedom.

Why are all pretty boys insane?

The point is, sometimes when the rabbit gets too fat, too comfortable, he makes mistakes. But the gardener, she ain't got nothing but time. Because even the hungriest rabbit can't eat the entire garden. At some point the good sheriff will make a mistake, some gross miscalculation, reveal some weakness, and that's when we'll find our freedom.

We ain't supposed to carry firearms when traveling into town but I'm always ready for someone to try and take a bite outta me, especially at the university. Everyone knows that academics are the most ruthless cutthroats around.

Momma always said a healthy serving of scorn before dinner keeps a girl slim.

My momma always said the best way to get what you want from people is to give them what they think they want. They expected me to be stupid, so I used that to our advantage.

I ain't waiting for an opportunity. I'm making one.

The day I came squealing and squalling into the world was the first time someone tried to kill me. I guess it should have been obvious to everyone right then that I wasn't going to have a normal life.

...because there's nothing better than the memories of others when you're little and have no stories of your own.

It seems strange that in these very fraught times folks would be more concerned about hardworking people trying to find a better life than the monsters that actually want to eat them.

Jane, I've never thought of it that way, that beauty could be a weapon.

...we know the curse that has been laid upon us--not the curse of bondage, but rather the curse of neglect. This country does not see, nor seek to remedy, the suffering of the Negro, and we are taxed to bear the wrath of white inadequacy.