β
I cannot go to school today"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry.
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox.
And there's one more - that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue,
It might be the instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke.
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in.
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My toes are cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There's a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is ...
What? What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is .............. Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!
β
β
Shel Silverstein
β
If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.
β
β
Claude McKay
β
The greatest battles of life are fought out daily in the silent chambers of the soul.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
No matter what you do, someone always knew you would.
β
β
Ami McKay (The Birth House)
β
True education does not consist merely in the acquiring of a few facts of science, history, literature, or art, but in the development of character.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Your thoughts are the architects of your destiny.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Truth is like poetry.
And most people fucking hate poetry.
β
β
Adam McKay (The Big Short: A Screenplay)
β
May the bridges I burn light the way.
β
β
D. McKay
β
The home is the first and most effective place to learn the lessons of life: truth, honor, virtue, self control, the value of education, honest work, and the purpose and privilege of life. Nothing can take the place of home in rearing and teaching children, and no worldly success can compensate for failure in the home.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Don't call me darling. I'm a driving instructor!
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother
β
β
David O. McKay
β
I had a dream about you last night.. you were holding a pine cone and introducing him as Gerald.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
The privilege to work is a gift.
The power to work is a blessing.
The love of work is success.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
The greatest work we will ever do will be within the walls of our home.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Let husband and wife never speak to one another in loud tones,unless the house is on fire.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Tomorrow you promise yourself will be different, yet tomorrow is too often a repetition of today.
β
β
James T. McKay
β
The greatest comfort in this life is having a close relationship with God.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Motherhood is the greatest potential influence either for good or ill in human life. The mother's image is the first that stamps itself on the unwritten page of the young child's mind. It is her caress that first awakens a sense of security; her kiss, the first realization of affection; her sympathy and tenderness, the first assurance that there is love in the world.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Happiness consists not of having, but of being; not of possessing, but of enjoying. It is a warm glow of the heart at peace with itself. A martyr at the stake may have happiness that a king on his throne might envy. Man is the creator of his own happiness. It is the aroma of life, lived in harmony with high ideals. For what a man has he may be dependent upon others; what he is rests with him alone.
β
β
David O. McKay (Pathways to Happiness)
β
Music is truly the universal language, and when it is excellently expressed how deeply it moves our souls
β
β
David O. McKay
β
All good things require effort. That which is worth having will cost part of your physical being, your intellectual power and your soul power. Let us ever keep in mind that life is largely what we make it.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
The purpose of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better, and to change human nature.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
I had a dream about you last night... you were there.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
I can only drive slowly."
"That's all right."
"And I can only do left turns."
Rose ran downstairs, grabbed a road atlas, and ran triumphantly back up again. "Wales is left! Look! It's left all the way!
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
I had a dream about you last night... you kept meowing at people and licking yourself it was not unlike you normally.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
Alice's face widens in horror. I left my candy Coture bag on the table!' 'Oh, the tragedy! Smitty joins in, girlying it up. The dead people might be.... touching it!
β
β
Kirsty McKay (Undead (Undead, #1))
β
He likes driving very fast on the wrong side of the road," said Sarah. "Which I can completely understand.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
If women lose the right to say where and how they birth their children, then they will have lost something that's as dear to life as breathing.
β
β
Ami McKay (The Birth House)
β
Man is a spiritual being, a soul, and at some period of his life everyone is possessed with an irresistible desire to know his relationship to the Infinite. . . . There is something within him which urges him to rise above himself, to control his environment, to master the body and all things physical and live in a higher and more beautiful world.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
The purpose of the church is to make bad men good and good men better.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
How can I give you nothing? Do you seriously expect me to buy nothing, wrap up nothing, stick a gift tag on nothing, send a card saying I really hope you like your nothing and lie awake worrying that the nothing I got you was the right color nothing you always anted? Have a heart!
β
β
Hilary McKay (Caddy Ever After (Casson Family, #4))
β
Children are more influenced by sermons you act than by sermons you preach.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
That which a man continually thinks about determines his actions in times of opportunity and stress. I will know what you are if you tell me what you think about when you don't have to think.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Sometimes, for a moment, everything is just as you need it to be. The memories of such moments live in the heart, waiting for the time you need to think of them, if only to remind yourself that for a short while, everything had been fine, and might be so again.
β
β
Ami McKay (The Virgin Cure)
β
i open my eyes and blow a straggle of hair out of my face. Not my hair, smitty's. his head is buried in the crook of my neck and he's out cold. he uses raspberry shampoo? what a big girl.
β
β
Kirsty McKay (Undead (Undead, #1))
β
I'm going to tell you the most important secret of human life. The most critical need of the human soul is to be kind.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Hereβs Lego Zombie Chef! Hereβs Lego Zombie builder! See their grasping hands and posable limbs!
β
β
Kirsty McKay (Undead (Undead, #1))
β
What-e're thou art,
Act well thy part.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
God, she loved this man. She loved his gruff, sweet, thoughtful sides. And his edgy side. She wasnβt in love with the perfect Cord McKay sheβs been fantasizing over forever, but the real flesh and blood man. The real man. Flaws and all.
β
β
Lorelei James (Cowgirl Up and Ride (Rough Riders, #3))
β
Darling Daddy,
This is Rose.
The shed needs new wires now it has blown up.
Caddy is bringing home rock-bottom boyfriends to see if they will do for Mummy. Instead of you.
Love, Rose.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
What you think about when you don't think, shows who you really are.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
The house had a name. The Banana House. It was carved onto a piece of sandstone above the front door. It made no sense to anyone.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
She had to go," said Rose.
"It was because of her angel," said Indigo.
"And because of Granddad," added Caddy.
"And because of her nose stud."
"And because her name isn't on the color chart."
"She's lonely," said Rose. "That's why.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
Make a wish," said Indigo.
Rose made a wish and then asked, "Why?"
"That's what I always do. Wish on the moving ones."
"Does it matter how fast they move?"
"I don't think so."
"Can you wish on airplanes, too?"
"Oh, yes.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
She's your once in a lifetime girl.
β
β
Dennis McKay (A Boy From Bethesda)
β
I had a dream about you last night.. you were trying to give coordinates to an apple
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
Trust is greater than love.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
No other success [in life] can compensate for failure in the home.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Next to being one in worshipping God there is nothing in this world upon which the Church should be more united that in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Every noble impulse, every unselfish expression of love, every surrender of self to something higher than self, every loyalty to an ideal, every fine courage of the soul β by doing good for goodβs sake β that is spirituality. β
β
β
David O. McKay
β
β¦ The most worthy calling in life is that in which man can serve best his fellow man. β¦ The noblest aim in life is to strive to live to make other lives better and happier.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
I had a dream about you last night.. You thought you were a candy vampire, you were standing in the sun screaming 'I'm melting.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
I think it must be apparent to every thinking mind that the noblest of all professions is that of teaching, and that upon the effectiveness of that teaching hangs the destiny of nations.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
In choosing a companion, it is necessary to study the disposition, the inheritance, and training of the one with whom you are contemplating making lifeβs journey.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
I had a dream about you last night... I was a brick and you were a blanket. Damn that improbability drive.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
I know the dark delight of being strange, The penalty of difference in the crowd, The loneliness of wisdom among fools...
β
β
Claude McKay
β
I will raise my voice as long as God gives me sound or ability, against this Communistic idea that the Government will take care of us all, and everything belongs to the government. It is wrong!
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Could you just go downstairs and lock up the headless body first, please?"
Itβs reasonable request.
β
β
Kirsty McKay (Undead (Undead, #1))
β
Maybe heβs got a nicotine crave on. That must really suck: being a zombie who canβt get a smoke
β
β
Kirsty McKay (Undead (Undead, #1))
β
Sheβd always adored autumn storms, from the quiet that came before the rain, when the birds and bugs went silent, to the raucous cracks and grumbles that echoed between the clouds, rife with the possibility of goblins and ghosts.
β
β
Ami McKay (The Witches of New York)
β
Let my assure you, Brethren, that some day you will have a personal Priesthood interview with the Savior, Himself. If you are interested, I will tell you the order in which He will ask you to account for your earthly responsibilities.
First, He will request an accountability report about your relationship with your wife. Have you actively been engaged in making her happy and ensuring that her needs have been met as an individual?
Second, He will want an accountability report about each of your children individually. He will not attempt to have this for simply a family stewardship but will request information about your relationship to each and every child.
Third, He will want to know what you personally have done with the talents you were given in the pre-existence.
Fourth, He will want a summary of your activity in your church assignments. He will not be necessarily interested in what assignments you have had, for in his eyes the home teacher and a mission president are probably equals, but He will request a summary of how you have been of service to your fellowmen in your Church assignments.
Fifth, He will have no interest in how you earned your living, but if you were honest in all your dealings.
Sixth, He will ask for an accountability on what you have done to contribute in a positive manner to your community, state, country, and the world.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Well,β you may ask, βhow may I know when I am in love?β
. . . George Q. Morris [who later became a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gave this reply]: βMy mother once said that if you meet a girl in whose presence you feel a desire to achieve, who inspires you to do your best, and to make the most of yourself, such a young woman is worthy of your love and is awakening love in your heart.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Rose had the sort of eyes that manage perfectly well with things close by, but entirely blur out things far away. Because of this even the brightest stars had only appeared as silvery smudges in the darkness. In all her life, Rose had never properly seen a star.
Tonight there was a sky full.
Rose looked up, and it was like walking into a dark room and someone switching on the universe.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
Iβm evil, but I donβt care
β
β
Kirsty McKay (Undead (Undead, #1))
β
If We Must Die
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursèd lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
β
β
Claude McKay (Selected Poems of Claude McKay)
β
How a mother comes to love her child, her caring at all for this thing that's made her heavy, lopsided and slow, this thing that made her wish she were dead ... that's the miracle.
β
β
Ami McKay (The Birth House)
β
Wisdom is the right application of knowledge; and true education...is the application of knowledge to the development of a noble and Godlike character.
β
β
David O. McKay (Gospel Ideals: Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay)
β
Close your eyes and get some rest. We gain new worlds when we sleep. βThe Grimoire of Eleanor St. Clair
β
β
Ami McKay (The Witches of New York)
β
He will grow up into one of those people who lean back to smile and jump so easily it looks like slow motion and steer cars with their knees and snitch roses from gardens to give to girls and write with their left hand and own two pairs of jeans and one jacket and fall in love from such a height and so hard and so completely that they never quite recover from the drop.
But at least he will have me to look out for him.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Forever Rose (Casson Family, #5))
β
You can't be disgusting to people just because they annoy you!" she exclaimed very crossly. "Thousands of people annoy me! Millions of people annoy millions of people all the time! . . . You have to put up with them.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
I had a dream about you last night... Well I say dream I mean nightmare... you were a Yankee fan.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (I Had a Dream About You)
β
Instead of Rock, Paper, Scissors, you could play Brick, Blanket, Action Fingers, in which brick cripples action fingers, blanket smothers brick and action fingers beats blanket.
β
β
Nicole Riekhof (A bit of rubbish about a Brick and a Blanket)
β
She'll soon forget."
"Caddy," said Saffron impatiently, "she is headmistress of the private school! She's probably never forgotten anything in her whole life!
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
Just because something goes wrong in your life doesn't mean you get to become the wrong in everyone else's
β
β
Christian McKay Heidicker (Cure for the Common Universe)
β
Adventure-seasoned and storm-buffeted,
I shun all signs of anchorage, because
The zest of life exceeds the bound of laws.
β
β
Claude McKay (Selected Poems (Dover Thrift Editions: Black History))
β
A man may possess a profound knowledge of history and mathematics; he may be an authority in psychology, biology, or astronomy; he may know all the discovered truths pertaining to geology and natural science; but if he has not with this knowledge that nobility of soul which prompts him to deal justly with his fellow men, to practice virtue and holiness in his personal life, he is not truly an educated man.
Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end. Character is not the result of chance work but of continuous right thinking and right acting.
β
β
David O. McKay (Gospel Ideals: Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay)
β
When a person is in emotional pain, itβs hard to be rational and to think of a good solution. Nevertheless, many of the coping strategies used by people with overwhelming emotions only serve to make their problems worse.
β
β
Matthew McKay (The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Workbook: Practical DBT Exercises for Learning Mindfulness, Interpersonal Effectiveness, Emotion Regulation, And Distress Tolerance)
β
Youth need guidance, direction, and proper restraint...Parents, too, have a responsibility in this training not to provoke children to wrath. They should be considerate not to irritate by vexatious commands or place unreasonable blame. Whenever possible they should give encouragement rather than remonstrance or reproof.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
And what is true education? It is awakening a love for truth; giving a just sense of duty; opening the eyes of the soul to the great purpose and end of life. It is not so much giving words, as thoughts; or mere maxims, as living principles. It is not teaching to be honest, because 'honesty is the best policy'; but because it is right. It is teaching the individual to love the good, for the sake of the good; to be virtuous in action because one is so in heart; to love and serve God supremely, not from fear, but from delight in his perfect character.
β
β
David O. McKay (Gospel Ideals: Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay)
β
The aim of education is to develop resources in the child that will contribute to his well-being as long as life endures; to develop power of self-mastery that he may never be a slave to indulgence or other weaknesses, to develop [strong] manhood, beautiful womanhood that in every child and every youth may be found at least the promise of a friend, a companion, one who later may be fit for husband or wife, an exemplary father or a loving intelligent mother, one who can face life with courage, meet disaster with fortitude, and face death without fear.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
The noblest calling in the world is motherhood. True motherhood is the most beautiful of all arts, the greatest of all professions. She who can paint a masterpiece, or who can write a book that will influence millions, deserve the plaudits and admiration of mankind; but she who rears successfully a family of healthy, beautiful sons and daughters whose immortal souls will exert influence throughout the ages long after paintings shall have faded, and books and statues shall have decayed or been destroyed, deserves the highest honor that man can give, and the choicest blessings of God.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
You just told me you didn't intend to love me. You didn't want to love me. You got yourself arrested to keep yourself away from me. That's not love. That's a compulsion. And, by the way, kudos on coming up with the worst pickup line of all time.
β
β
Emily McKay (The Farm (The Farm, #1))
β
Is this your holiday homework?" asked Sarah. "Don't do it, Rose! And Eve will write you a note to say it's iniquitous to give eight-year-olds homework. You will, won't you, Eve?"
"I could never spell 'iniquitous,' Sarah darling!"
"Hot concrete," said Rose mournfully, prodding her porridge.
"Write this," ordered Saffron. "'The ancient Egyptians are all dead. Their days are very quiet.' Porridge is meant to look like hot concrete. Eat it up.... Read the next question!"...
"What would you say if you bumped into Tutankhamen in the street?"
"'Sorry!'" said Sarah at once. "Put that."
"We have to answer in proper sentences."
"'Sorry, but it was your fault! You were walking sideways!
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
Saffy could tell by the feel of the darkness that Caddy was awake. She said, "Caddy, how far back can you remember?"
"Oh," said Caddy, "ages. I can remember when I could only lie flat. On my back. I can remember how pleased I was when I learned to roll over.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
I plucked my soul out of its secret place,
And held it to the mirror of my eye,
To see it like a star against the sky,
A twitching body quivering in space,
A spark of passion shining on my face.
And I explored it to determine why
This awful key to my infinity
Conspires to rob me of sweet joy and grace.
And if the sign may not be fully read,
If I can comprehend but not control,
I need not gloom my days with futile dread,
Because I see a part and not the whole.
Contemplating the strange, Iβm comforted
By this narcotic thought: I know my soul.
β
β
Claude McKay
β
Darling Daddy,
This is Rose.
So flames went all up the kitchen wall. Saffron called the fire brigade and the police came too to see if it was a trick and the police woman said to Saffron Here You Are Again because of when I got lost having my glasses checked. But I was with Tom whose grandmother is a witch on top of the highest place in town.
Love, Rose.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
Once, when Tom was over here, to tease Rose, I asked him, "Before she was born, can you remember? Were things just the same as they are these days? Did it still rain and get dark and all the stuff it does now? Did the sun go up and down in exactly the same way?"
Yes," Tom said, and then he smiled at Rose and said, "No. Not really. Not exactly the same way.
β
β
Hilary McKay
β
The true purpose of life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God's inspiration. Real life is response to the best within us. To be alive only to appetite, pleasure, pride, money-making, and not to goodness and kindness, purity and love, poetry, music, flowers, stars, God and eternal hopes, is to deprive one's self of the real joy of living.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
Fishing in a bucket. The total hopelessness of the activity was very soothing. It was the perfect sport. Without the emotional stresses of success and failure, she was entirely free to enjoy the pleasures of the moment... It was a good hobby, and cheap, and if more people did it more often
β
β
Hilary McKay (The Exiles (The Exiles, #1))
β
If you see birds flying high in the sky, it means clear weather. However, if you see a lot of birds roosting on power lines and trees, this either means they're conspiring against you or falling air pressure and bad weather are on the way. Expect rain and/or a killer seagull attack in the next twelve hours.
β
β
Brett McKay (The Art of Manliness: Classic Skills and Manners for the Modern Man)
β
But there is a beauty every girl hasβa
gift from God, as pure as the sunlight,
and as sacred as life. It is a beauty that all men love, a virtue that wins all men's souls. That beauty is chastity. Chastity without skin beauty may enkindle the soul; skin beauty without chastity can kindle only the eye. Chastity enshrined in the mold of true womanhood will hold true love
eternally.
β
β
David O. McKay (Gospel Ideals: Selections from the Discourses of David O. McKay)
β
Every noble impulse, every unselfish expression of love; every brave suffering for the right; every surrender of self to something higher than self; every loyalty to an ideal; every unselfish devotion to principle; every helpfulness to humanity; every act of self-control; every fine courage of the soul, undefeated by pretense or policy, but by being, doing, and living of good for the very goodβs sakeβthat is spirituality.
β
β
David O. McKay
β
It had not seemed to matter that Rose was only eight years old.
"More than eight," said Rose. "Nearly nine."
"Darling Rose, even almost nearly nine-year-old's don't fall in love," said forgetful Caddy.
Caddy tried very hard to comfort Rose when Tom had left. It was not an easy job. It was like trying to comfort a small, unhappy tiger.
"Who said anything about falling in love?" growled Rose crossly. "Falling! Falling is by accident! I didn't fall in anything!"
"Oh. Right. Sorry, Posy Rose."
"And I am definitely not in love!
β
β
Hilary McKay (Permanent Rose (Casson Family, #3))
β
On the board was a list of words and phrases which her mother considered not suitable for use in college T-shirt design. She had been asked about them so often that in the end she had started a blacklist of banned words to which everyone could refer. Every time someone thought of a new one, she unflinchingly wrote it down...
Rose read through the list, and turned back to her letter.
These are the words I learned to spell in Mummy's art class today, she wrote, and sighed a little as she began the tedious job of copying from the board.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
β
Kiran says (the shelf) is full of stories. If it is, then I like fairy stories. Fairy stories are fair. In them wishes are granted, words are enchanted, the honest and brave make it safely through to the last page and the baddies either have to give up their wickedness for ever and ever, no going back, or get ruthlessly written out of the story, which they hardly ever survive. Also in fairy stories there are hardly any of those half-good half-bad people that crop up so constantly in real life and are so difficult to believe in...
β
β
Hilary McKay (Forever Rose (Casson Family, #5))
β
He had a charm about him sometimes, a warmth that was irresistible, like sunshine. He planted Saffy triumphantly on the pavement, opened the taxi door, slung in his bag, gave a huge film-star wave, called, "All right, Peter? Good weekend?" to the taxi driver, who knew him well and considered him a lovely man, and was free.
"Back to the hard life," he said to Peter, and stretched out his legs.
Back to the real life, he meant. The real world where there were no children lurking under tables, no wives wiping their noses on the ironing, no guinea pigs on the lawn, nor hamsters in the bedrooms, and no paper bags full of leaking tomato sandwiches.
β
β
Hilary McKay (Saffy's Angel (Casson Family, #1))
β
All good things require effort. That which is worth having will cost part of your physical being, your intellectual power, and your soul powerββAsk, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.β (Matt. 7:7.) But you have to seek, you have to knock. On the other hand, sin thrusts itself upon you. It walks beside you, it tempts you, it entices, it allures. You do not have to put forth effort. β¦ Evil seeks you, and it requires effort and fortitude to combat it. But truth and wisdom are gained only by seeking, by prayer, and by effort.
β
β
David O. McKay
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There are all sorts of families," Tom's grandmother had remarked, and over the following few weeks Tom became part of the Casson family, as Micheal and Sarah and Derek-from-the-camp had done before him.
He immediately discovered that being a member of the family was very different from being a welcome friend. If you were a Casson family member, for example, and Eve drifted in from the shed asking, "Food? Any ideas? Or shall we not bother?" then you either joined in the search of the kitchen cupboards or counted the money in the housekeeping jam jar and calculated how many pizzas you could afford. Also, if you were a family member you took care of Rose, helped with homework (Saffron and Sarah were very strict about homework), unloaded the washing machine, learned to fold up Sarah's wheelchair, hunted for car keys, and kept up the hopeful theory that in the event of a crisis Bill Casson would disengage himself from his artistic life in London and rush home to help.
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Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
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I love people who play guitars on roofs!" said Rose, hopping along the pavement in one of her sudden happy moods. "Don't you?"
"Never knew anyone else who did it!"
"Don't you like Tom?"
"Of course I do. But I don't know about all the other guitar-on-roof players! They might be really awful people, with just that one good thing about them. Playing guitars on roofs... or bagpipes... Or drums... Sarah would like that, and Saffy could have the bagpipes! Caddy could have a harp.... What about Mum?"
"One of those gourds filled with beans!" said Rose at once. "And Daddy could have a grand piano. On a flat roof. With a balcony and pink flowers in pots around the edge! And I'll have a very loud trumpet! What about you?"
"I'll just listen," said Indigo.
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Hilary McKay (Indigo's Star (Casson Family, #2))
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A man may possess a profound knowledge of history and mathematics; he may be an authority in psychology, biology, or astronomy; he may know all the discovered truths pertaining to geology and natural science; but if he has not with this knowledge that nobility of soul which prompts him to deal justly with his fellow men, to practice virtue and holiness in personal life, he is not a truly educated man. "Character is the aim of true education; and science, history, and literature are but means used to accomplish the desired end. Character is not the result of chance work but of continuous right thinking and right acting.
"True education seeks, then, to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men, combined with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love-men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life.
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David O. McKay