Paulette Mahurin > Quotes

“That's why I read so much. A book isn't going to hurt me. A book isn't going to form some opinion about me that could wreck my life. I learn about so many new and great things from reading. I keep to myself with a good book and a shot of whiskey and I'm right with the world.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap

“De Profundis by Oscar Wilde (this excerpt inspired my book, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap. Wilde wrote it to his lover while in prison.)

When first I was put into prison some people advised me to try and forget who I was. It was ruinous advice. It is only by realizing what I am that I have found comfort of any kind. Now I am advised by others to try on my release to forget that I have ever been in a prison at all. I know that would be equally fatal. It would mean that I would always be haunted by an intolerable sense of disgrace, and that those things that are meant for me as much as for anybody else – the beauty of the sun and moon, the pageant of the seasons, the music of daybreak and the silence of great nights, the rain falling through the leaves, or the dew creeping over the grass and making it silver – would all be tainted for me, and lose their healing power, and their power of communicating joy. To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”
― Paulette Mahurin

“God gave you brain, Charley. If you're using it then that's a gift from him. Not for someone else to determine for you what's right and wrong. Twenty people read the Bible and each has a different interpretation. More wars fought and blood shed over religion than anything else. That should tell you something. No clear right or wrong about anything. That's how I see it.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap

“My heartache never stopped, but I learned to be grateful for the essentials of life: for the air in my lungs, the visions my eyes behold, and the very experience of being alive.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“How our lives end up on the paths we take is a mystery to me.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“Knowing the verses wasn’t important, knowing God was.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“When there is life, there is a chance and reason for hope. One never knows what the future will bring, but as long as we are alive, there is the possibility for something good. Trust in the goodness and kindness of people. And no matter what, never, never give up. Make this your sustaining attitude. This can never be taken from you.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“opened their door reminded me again that good people lived in this world. They helped me at great risk to themselves and for no reward. My heart warmed knowing that they wanted to help people like me, people different from them in almost every way but one: we are all human beings. And knowing that somehow lessened the big divide I felt between my people and those against us. It spoke to something more powerful than hatred. And it also spoke to something I felt was greater than just upbringing. Perhaps we are all made differently. Maybe some folks are born with a natural ability to put themselves in the minds and hearts of people who aren’t the same as them. And other folks, well, they think their own little corner of the world is so special they don’t care to look hardly past their own front door. And there are probably lots of people in between.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“I was glad for his company. I didn’t ever want to be without it.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“I wasn’t going to be stupid or ignorant. And I would refuse to believe it if someone insulted my intelligence. Believing it would bring shame to me and everyone who loved and helped me find my way to freedom. Even in my agonizing grief, a beacon of hopeful light broke through the shadows:”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“is a chance and reason for hope. One never knows what the future will bring, but as long as we are alive, there is the possibility for something good. Trust in the goodness and kindness of people. And no matter what, never, never give up. Make this your sustaining attitude. This can never be taken from you.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“The labyrinth of emotions that I didn’t want to feel, experience, or face—fear, anger, and unbearable loss—enveloped me. I reached out in desperation like a helpless baby who needed her mommy. Hold me. Comfort me. Tell me that everything will be fine. Where are you? By the time the oceans of deep sorrow moved”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“The wisdom of my body melded with the wisdom from my Papa that lived on in me. After”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“There are no words to help me explain this. It is a sense, from the deepest intuitive place in my soul that understands this whole divine play of life is under His control, not ours. You need to find that place in your soul. It’s there. For everyone.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“was overwhelmed with relief when I realized that people are people. Simple as that. And the color of my skin doesn’t make me less of a person. It doesn’t separate or define my humanness. No, what makes some less human is hatred and hateful actions.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“How could there be so much beauty in this world and also so much ugliness?”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“By helping others when it was safe to do so, I found serenity in the midst of the madness.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“although I may not be able to control what comes up inside my head—or what spurs it on—I could do something about deciding my course in life.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“I finally understood how connecting unrelated things can shed light on whatever might be puzzling me.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“I learned that opportunity, not just danger, lies around every bend in the road—you just have to be on the road to find them.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. Viktor E. Frankl”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“I couldn’t change what life throws at me, but I could determine how I receive it.”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“When there is life, there is a chance and reason for hope. One never knows what the future will bring, but as long as we are alive, there is the possibility for something good. Trust in the goodness and kindness of people. And no matter what, never, never give up. Make this your sustaining attitude. This can never be taken from you.” That”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“Some like to believe there were lessons to be learned from this moment in history; I disagree. I came to realize that life is a game of chance that you enter. It is up to you to determine how you react to the events that chance presents to you. It is up to you to proceed at your own risk. Is there a God guiding any part of the journey?”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress

“in opening myself up, I found out that what I conjured up inside my head was often more frightening than what really lived in the world”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Day I Saw the Hummingbird

“Something inside of me refused to give up. Was I surviving because I thought I had a future beyond this nightmare?”
― Paulette Mahurin, The Seven Year Dress