Catholic School Quotes

“The difference between a regular Catholic education and a Jesuit education is the difference between the army and the marines.”
― Gary Reilly, The Heart of Darkness Club

“I came back [to school] in the fall, as a full-time boarder, with a certain set to my jaw, determined to go it alone. A summer passed in thoughtful isolation, rowing on a mountain lake, diving from a pier, had made me perfectly reckless. I was going to get myself recognized at whatever price. It was in this cold, empty gambler’s mood, common to politicians and adolescents, that I surveyed the convent setup. If I could not win fame by goodness, I was ready to do it by badness.”
― Mary McCarthy, Memories of a Catholic Girlhood

“As a man, I was a failure. A pathetic teacher lusting after Catholic school girls in short skirts. As a monster, I'm superb. It's comforting to know my place in the world.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, Danse Macabre

“My affliction decided to join us, forcing me to push my toes on the floor as though I were trying to eject myself from the chair. I prayed she didn’t notice what the affliction was making me do. I half expected to be eaten alive or murdered and buried out back in the school yard.
“I’m not afraid of you, ya know,” I said, although I was terrified of her. The words hurt her, but that wasn’t my intent. She turned her face and looked out the window into North Cliff Street. She knew what her face and twisted body looked like, and she probably knew what the kids said about her. It was probably an open wound for her and I had just tossed salt into it.
I was instantly ashamed of what I done and tried to correct myself. I didn’t mean to be hurtful, because I knew what it was like to be ridiculed for something that was beyond one’s control, such as my affliction, and how it made me afraid to touch the chalk because the feel of chalk to people like me is overwhelming. If I had to write on the blackboard, I held the chalk with the cuff of my shirt and the class laughed.
“You look good in a nun’s suit,” I said. It was a stupid thing to say, but I meant well by it. She looked down at the black robe as if she were seeing it for the first time.”
― John William Tuohy, No Time to Say Goodbye: A Memoir of a Life in Foster Care

“Entering her old school foyer was like stepping back in time. Paula felt an urge to roll down her socks and undo the top buttons of her shirt. Girls seemed to appear from every door and window, aware by some strange telepathy that a man had entered the premises. The air was heavy with Impulse and mild hysteria. It was strange, she thought, watching Guy's strong back go up the stairs. At that age she'd have considered him desperately old - someone's dad. But at some point, everything had changed.”
― Claire McGowan, The Lost

“Day after day, year after year, the private school tells us the same story over and over again, cultivating familiarity with invisible yet omnipresent characters who are neither dead nor alive-----the Virgin Mary, the Infant Jesus, the angels-----whose lives are closer to us than those of our own grandparents.”
― Annie Ernaux, Shame

“...my father believes when girls get old enough to notice boys, it's good for them to be surrounded by nuns. I'm in either grade. The nuns can't stop me from looking.”
― Kimberly Willis Holt, Keeper of the Night

“...my father believes when girls get old enough to notice boys, it's good for them to be surrounded by nuns. I'm in eighth grade. The nuns can't stop me from looking.”
― Kimberly Willis Holt, Keeper of the Night