Mary Antin

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be…

— Mary Antin

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession.

— Mary Antin

One current of continuity runs underneath all the abortive phases of my life. From childhood on I have been obliged to drop…

— Mary Antin

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession. A true man finds so much work to do that he has no time to…

— Mary Antin

“The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness.”

— Mary Antin

The past was only my cradle, and now it cannot hold me, because I am grown too big.

— Mary Antin

It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live…

— Mary Antin

“The tongue am I of those who lived before me, as those that are to come will be the voice of my…

— Mary Antin

It is not that I belong to the past, but the past that belongs to me.

— Mary Antin

The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any…

— Mary Antin

There was one public school for boys, and one for girls, but Jewish children were admitted in limited numbers - only ten…

— Mary Antin

You went up to be examined with the other Jewish children, your heart heavy about that matter of your nose.

— Mary Antin

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth…

— Mary Antin

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

— Mary Antin

As we moved along in a little procession, I was delighted with the illumination of the streets. So many lamps, and they…

— Mary Antin

The czar was always sending us commands - you shall not do this and you shall not do that - till there…

— 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…

— Mary Antin

It is only that my illusion is more real to me than reality. And so do we often build our world on…

— Mary Antin

“We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later...Our mothers are racked with the…

— Mary Antin

I have so little mastered the art of tranquil living that wherever I go I trail storm clouds of drama around me.

— Mary Antin

If education, culture, the higher life were shining things to be worshiped from afar, he had still a means left whereby he…

— Mary Antin

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth…

— Mary Antin

One positive command he gave us: You shall love and honor your emperor. In every congregation a prayer must be said for…

— Mary Antin

A little instruction in the elements of chartography—a little practice in the use of the compass and the spirit level, a topographical…

— Mary Antin