The Downstairs Girl Quotes
"Being nice is like leaving your door wide-open. Eventually, someone’s going to mosey in and steal your best hat."
"Boundaries must be set. Especially boundaries over one’s worth."
"Pavement is underappreciated for all it does to smooth the way."
"If you don’t stick your foot out, you’ll never advance."
"As long as you have a home, you have a place to plan and dream."
"Sometimes love just stumbles into you, out of the blue, and no amount of facial hair can divert you from its path."
"Great souls have wills, feeble souls only wishes."
"You can tell a lot about a person by their choice of headgear."
"The best way to deliver the truth, if not posthumously, is anonymously."
"I am of the opinion that there are many occasions in which the thing said differs greatly from the thing thought."
"When deception is not at issue, words should be taken at their face value, or they are in danger of losing currency."
"The knowledge that I might have helped my sisters in Atlanta in some small way is payment enough."
"The wildflower doesn’t complain when the horse waters it. It is just thankful for the moisture."
"One must be careful about what one wishes. Better to be satisfied with one’s lot, as there is always someone who is worse off."
"The best way to boost your attractiveness is to accept yourself the way you are, which will free your mind to pursue creativity and joy."
"I shake out the stiffness in my limbs and try to make my breathing effortless again, the way Hammer Foot instructed to get energy flowing."
"The tricky thing about giving opinions is that sometimes they cost you more than you wanted to spend."
"There is no greater thrill than that which comes from captaining one’s own ship through the waters of one’s choosing."
"If you choose good bricks, Old Gin liked to say, you will not have to worry about your house crumbling."
"It seems to me that praying is a hit-or-miss thing, and when it’s answered, it’s never quite the way one expects."
"We have to fight for every inch or we’ll lose it."
"A length of scarlet silk lies atop the heap."
"I wouldn’t scratch at your door if it were gilded an inch deep."
"There are unspoken rules in the South that govern how blacks and whites interact, including that blacks do not look whites in the eye."
"It occurs to me that men are the real sauceboxes, but no one ever calls them sauceboxes because they are allowed to say what they want—at least the white ones."
"Two women who have drifted closer to us trade worried glances and then hurriedly exit the store."
"Robby’s pliant mouth thins, matching the dark slashes of his eyebrows."
"I don’t know about that, Robby. I heard Mr. Thomas Edison’s so clever, he could make even a train fly."
"Billy’s eyes widen, but then a grin spreads across the crook’s face. 'I don’t see a bill of sale.'"
"We watch him swagger to the exit. Not until he has left the shop do I resume breathing."
"Hammer Foot says jittery energy needs stabilizing to focus it, like an arrow needs fletching to fly straight."
"The memory of Shang’s letter unfolds in my mind. Had Shang been one of the Chinese who had scratched on his door?"
"I imagine her sleepy blue eyes, the curtsy of her smile, the strawberry-blond ringlets teasing out the blush in her skin."
"We all must abide by the rules, but some of us must follow more than others."
"No, sir. My hands shake as I fit my items back into my bag. You?"
"Lost trust takes time to rebuild. But with consistency and humility, the diamond can be unearthed again."
"Like Caroline, I am in no hurry to be found, though plans are under way."
"Controversy boosts sales, and think of all the poor women who would benefit."
"We are all like candles, and whether we are single or joined with another does not affect how brightly we can burn."
"I lift my chin and put my fists on my hips. The face in the mirror loses its injury, though my ache over Old Gin persists on the inside."
"She is as guileless and hard to resist as the cake hats in Mrs. English’s windows."
"Sometimes, we are so driven by our own needs, we do things that hurt ourselves."
"Imagine, Jo, if women got a say, that could change the whole stew."
"Pepper is power. It solves a lot of problems you don’t expect it to."
"It was one thing to speak under the safety of Miss Sweetie’s name. Quite another to take a public stance under Jo Kuan’s."
"Caring for others is a gift we give ourselves."
"Life is full of risks. Keeps it interesting."
"No one minds putting colored people in the back of the streetcar, so long as it’s not their colored people."
"A man who cheats is not the most reliable of knights."
"Time and money would be better spent on the problem of how to transport our sewage out of our city, rather than directing more garbage into it."
"Life keeps going, doesn’t it? The only real ending is a shovel of dirt in one’s face."
"The part of me that could take a bite out of the world will lose its teeth."
"Certain things are simply not worth the humiliation."
"Once trust is lost, it is a mountain of gravel to reclimb."
"Marriages need not be happy as long as they are mutually advantageous."
"An anxious mind makes lions of tumbleweeds. Live in the present, not in the future."
"Revolution is best taken by the teaspoon, not the glass."
"Even the most beautiful of fabrics has a traitorous side."
"Justice and fairness are for other people, umbrellas that open only for certain heads."
"Sometimes things fall apart so better things can come together."
"Victory is knowing your worth no matter what the crows tell you."
"Like a candle that can light a thousand more without shortening its own life, appreciation is a gift that, when given, can set the whole world aglow."
"I trust there will be no unmasking of Miss Sweetie. Seems she is not the only one wearing a mask."
"The only trick I know is the one where you pull up your knees and pivot in the saddle, but that one’s not going to speed me to the finish any faster."
"Black-eyed peas and things that could be steeped. We only used our stove when your fireplace was lit."
"The path to progress has never been without risk, whether that path be a march for the vote or an eight-furlong stretch."
"Redirect their energy toward a common goal, like cultivating a garden, which can bear fruit in more than one way."
"Oxen untethered will trample the field, but yoked together, they can plow it."
"The collective roar is louder than the sum of its parts."