Where the Lilies Bloom Quotes

“I have never forgotten what he said - that this land was fair land, the fairest of them all. This is where the lilies bloom.”

“He’s let things beat him, Roy Luther has. The land, Kiser Pease, the poverty. Now he’s old and sick and ready to die and when he does, this is what we’ll inherit - his defeat and all that goes with it.”

“You never did anything right to anybody, Kiser, and so you deserve to die, but I’m not going to let you.”

“You don’t thank people who set you in bondage and hold you there year after wretched year. You hate them. And if it isn’t in you to hate, as it had never been in Roy Luther, then you do second best; you pick up and get out.”

“Anxiety and apprehension should have been the furthest things from my mind. But because I am a pessimist and must always keep sticking my tongue in pessimism the way you do a sore tooth I couldn’t help thinking that it was all too easy. Things just aren’t this easy for people...Something or somebody is bound to come and spoil it...so you can just get yourself ready for it.”

“Friends were another thing Miss Breathitt believed in and thought wonderful. Friends, she said, improved talents and happiness and all of us should take care to make some.”

“I said that I had never experienced a love-pinch and on a wave of amusement Kiser said, ‘Then you got that to look forward to. I don’t know, though. That Yancey fella don’t look very playful to me and Gaither’s not a very forward boy so maybe you’ll just have to skip that part of your life.’ ”

″ ‘Those boys looked mean, like they’d start a fire or something like that. That’s why I hollered at them like I did.’ ‘I see. Ima Dean, can you hear me or have your ears gone bad on you again?’ ‘No’m, I can hear you. You’re mad at me, aren’t you?’ ‘Why, no. Why should I be? It’s all right to holler at strangers. I always do. If they run up to you and stick a knife in your ribs, well, what does that matter? We’re Christians. We know this is not the only life.’ ”

“I love these two but can hardly stand them.”

″ ‘I haven’t settled on which yet but either way I won’t be wasting my life either. I’ll be working for the good of humanity too. You are raising Ima Dean and me right, Mary Call, and we will always be grateful to you for the way you have sacrificed yourself for us. ’ End of dream. ”