You Need to Read 30 Quotes from The Glass Castle Immediately

the glass castle movie
The Glass Castle via Lionsgate

This story will inspire you like never before.

Ashley Ferraro

Heartwarming Quotes From The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a tale of how the author escaped the confines of a dysfunctional family and poverty. These fierce quotes from the novel teach us life lessons we never knew we needed. Through her own story, Walls shares some of the most valuable secrets of happiness that she's gained from personal experience.

Before it became a film, this extraordinary memoir touched the lives of many readers. It explores themes of love and sacrifice in which all of us can somehow relate to. When you're looking for wisdom or maybe some inspiration, turn to these bold quotes from The Glass Castle to really get you thinking.

Profound Quotes From The Glass Castle

  • "You should never hate anyone, even your worst enemies. Everyone has something good about them. You have to find the redeeming quality and love the person for that."

  • "Life is a drama full of tragedy and comedy. You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more."

  • "One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by."

  • "I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes."

  • "Sometimes you need a little crisis to get your adrenaline flowing and help you realize your potential."

  • "You didn't need a college degree to become one of the people who knew what was really going on. If you paid attention, you could pick things up on your own."

  • "One thing about whoring: It put a chicken on the table."

  • "Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better."

  • "Life's too short to care about what other people think. Besides, they should accept us for who we are."

  • "Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encouraged them, she told us. That's positive reinforcement for negative behavior."

Noteworthy Quotes From The Glass Castle

  • "You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races."

  • "No child is born a delinquent. They only became that way if nobody loved them when they were kids. Unloved children grow up to be serial murderers or alcoholics."

  • "Life there was hard and it made people hard."

  • "All seasons have something to offer."

  • "Unlike diamonds, watches were practical. They were for people on the run, people with appointments to keep and schedules to meet."

  • "I felt best when I was on the move, going someplace rather than being there."

  • "New Yorkers, I figured, just pretended to be unfriendly."

  • "I wanted to let the world know that no one had a perfect life, that even people who seemed to have it all had their secrets."

  • "If you had weak eyes, they needed exercise to get strong. Glasses were like crutches. They prevented people with feeble eyes from seeing the world on their own."

  • "Too much hard luck can create a permanent meanness of spirit in any creature."

Memorable Quotes From The Glass Castle

  • "I told Mom that maybe I had made a terrible mistake, but mom said sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better."

  • "Once you go on welfare it changes you. Even if you get off welfare, you never escape the stigma that you were a charity case. You're scarred for life."

  • "Every household needs one piece of furniture in really bad taste."

  • "Don't you make fun of me or my children! Some babies are premature. Mine were all postmature. That's why they're so smart. Their brains had longer to develop."

  • "I'd rather have a yard filled with genuine garbage than with trashy lawn ornaments."

  • "As awful as he could be, I always knew he loved me in a way no one else ever had."

  • "She loved the dry, crackling heat, the way the sky at sunset looked like a sheet of fire, and the overwhelming emptiness and severity of all that open land that had once been a huge ocean bed."

  • "You can't live in fear of something as basic as fire."

  • "A wind picked up, rattling the windows, and the candle flames suddenly shifted, dancing along the border between turbulence and order."

  • "To all families who, despite their scars, still find a way to love."

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