You heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses.
Mary Antin

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful.
Mary Antin

In the evening of the first day my father conducted us to the public baths.
Mary Antin

His struggle for a bare living left him no time to take advantage of the public evening school. In time he learned to read, to follow a conversation or lecture; but he never learned to write correctly; and his pronunciation remains extremely foreign to this day.
Mary Antin

As we moved along in a little procession, I was delighted with the illumination of the streets. So many lamps, and they burned until morning, my father said, and so people did not need to carry lanterns.
Mary Antin

No, the czar did not want us in the schools.
Mary Antin

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.
Mary Antin

If education, culture, the higher life were shining things to be worshiped from afar, he had still a means left whereby he could draw one step nearer to them.
Mary Antin