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Mary Antin Biography

Mary Antin (born Maryashe Antin; June 13, 1881 – May 15, 1949) was an American author and immigration rights activist. She is best known for her 1912 autobiography The Promised Land, an account of her emigration and subsequent Americanization.

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Mary Antin Quotes

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

Children, Examined, Heart, Jewish, Noses

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession.

Autobiography, Bed, Confession, Proper

There was one public school for boys, and one for girls, but Jewish children were admitted in limited numbers - only ten to a hundred; and even the lucky ones had their troubles.

Children, Girl, Jewish, School, Ten, Troubles

The apex of my civic pride and personal contentment was reached on the bright September morning when I entered the public school.

Morning, Personal, Pride, Public, School

A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.

Limbs, Long, Past, Remembered, Running, Vividly

There is never a Jewish community without its scholars, but where Jews may not be both intellectuals and Jews, they prefer to remain Jews.

Community, Intellectuals, May, Scholar, Scholars

Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

Birth, Mother, Mothers, Pain, Pains, Spiritual

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

Bigs, Cradle, Grown, Hold, Past

A little instruction in the elements of chartography—a little practice in the use of the compass and the spirit level, a topographical map of the town common, an excursion with a road map—would have given me a fat round earth in place of my paper ghost.

Given, Littles, Place, Practice, Topographical, Towns

Such creatures of accident are we, liable to a thousand deaths before we are born. But once we are here, we may create our own world, if we choose.

Accident, Born, Liable, May, Thousand, World

[I began to unload] the pyramid of honors, civic and literary, which had been heaped on me by the headlong process of rewarding a popular success. One day, I sat down and wrote a wholesale lot of letters of resignation. When I finished, I didn't belong to a single authors club or patriotic society. I was myself again, whatever that was.

Honor, Literary, Patriotic, Pyramids, Sat, Unload

It is painful to be consciously of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness. I am not afraid to live on and on, if only I do not have to remember too much. A long past vividly remembered is like a heavy garment that clings to your limbs when you would run.

Afraid, Heavy, Limbs, Past, Running, Two Worlds

You heard on all sides that the brightest Jewish children were turned down if the examining officers did not like the turn of their noses.

Brightest, Children, Noses, Sides, Two Sides

The czar always got his dues, no matter if it ruined a family.

Czars, Family, Matter, Ruined

I want now to be of today. It is painful to be conscious of two worlds. The Wandering Jew in me seeks forgetfulness.

Jew, Two, Wandering, Want, World, Worlds

We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth.

Attentive, Exceedingly, Mom, Mother, Racked, Spiritual

A proper autobiography is a death-bed confession. A true man finds so much work to do that he has no time to contemplate his yesterdays; for to-day and to-morrow are here, with their impatient tasks. The world is so busy, too, that it cannot afford to study any man's unfinished work; for the end may prove it a failure, and the world needs masterpieces.

Contemplate, Man, Men, Unfinished Work, Yesterday, Yesterdays

On a royal birthday every house must fly a flag, or the owner would be dragged to a police station and be fined twenty-five rubles.

Birthday, Flag, House, Police, Station

One current of continuity runs underneath all the abortive phases of my life. From childhood on I have been obliged to drop anything I was doing to run after any man who seemed to know a little more than I did about God. . . I most want to write about: how a modern woman has sought the face of God-not the name nor the fame but the face [ital] of God-and what adventures came to meet her on this ancient human path.

Current, Meet, Running, Runs, Women, Writing

Mary Antin Biography

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