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They both looked questioningly at Mr. Rogov. He slowly removed his pince-nez, cleared his throat, and translated: “Do not in not your own sled sit.” “I get it,” Mr. Martin chuckled good-naturedly, “You mean it’s none of my business.”
Bel Kaufman -
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the eighteenth-century letter writer and biographer wrote: “Civility costs nothing and buys everything.
Bel Kaufman
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I’ve been a good mother,” she said. It was a plea rather than an affirmation.
Bel Kaufman -
Do not weep, do not weep, my little wife: song of hope and encouragement in marriage.
Bel Kaufman -
Apparently this r had to be worked for: Varya told me that as a child she couldn’t pronounce it properly, and that her father would make her repeat a series of exercises about gorgeous grapes growing on Mount Ararat and three hundred thirty-three drummers drumming on three hundred thirty-three drums.
Bel Kaufman -
This is just the first day; you’ll get used to it. The rewards will come later, from the kids themselves–and from the unlikeliest ones.
Bel Kaufman -
Without love, the art of love is mere acrobatics. Without love, the art of giving is mere etiquette.
Bel Kaufman -
I want to point the way to something that should forever lure them, when the TV set is broken and the movie is over and the school bell has rung for the last time.
Bel Kaufman
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To the young ones she would say bravely that her husband did not love her, but that she could never, never hurt him.
Bel Kaufman -
Education can't make us all leaders, but it can teach us which leader to follow.
Bel Kaufman -
Education is not a product: mark, diploma, job, money-in that order; it is a process, a never-ending one.
Bel Kaufman -
Wrrite, wrrite, Lapochka, why you don’t wrrite?” and assure me that a horse, even with four legs, stumbles. I found it difficult to explain to her what I was writing. “It’s about Colley Cibber,” I said. “He was an actor, playwright and poet.” “Also poet?” Varya asked suspiciously. “Who he? Pushkin?”
Bel Kaufman -
Your blouse is whitening on the chair and your parrot Flaubert weeps in French: she left him, and he is sorry.
Bel Kaufman -
When giving comes directly from the heart, it can never disappoint or embarrass.
Bel Kaufman
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Now, long before it came to the final reckoning, to payment of promise implied, she began to set the stage for the great renunciation. “Let’s not spoil it,” she would say, caressing the man’s lapels with long silken fingers. “Let’s not spoil what we have . . .
Bel Kaufman -
I’ll never retire as long as I live—that’s like retiring from life! I’ll never stop writing, teaching, lecturing. If you’re in good health, living is exciting on its own.
Bel Kaufman -
Why are we quarreling about a tie? flashed through her mind; at the same time, as if propelled by a force outside of herself, she tore it from his hand and flung it furiously into the wastebasket.
Bel Kaufman -
Had set out to tell you exactly what happened. But since I am the one writing this, how do I know what in my telling I am selecting, omitting, emphasizing; what unconscious editing I am doing?
Bel Kaufman -
What makes you think you’re so special? Just because you’re a teacher? What he was really saying was: You are so special. You are my teacher. Then teach me, help me, Hey, Teach, I’m lost—which way do I go? I’m tired of going up the down staircase.
Bel Kaufman -
The long procession of men flickered before her like faces on cards quickly riffled—blurred, two-dimensional. Only their desire for her mattered.
Bel Kaufman
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Their evenings were interminable; their Sundays were like their evenings.
Bel Kaufman -
A life to live is not a field to cross; yet, somehow, in her chaotic way, Varya was able to keep the house going.
Bel Kaufman -
He was taking off his tie, the dreadful tie with the green mermaid on it. “It’s your tie, Sam—I hate it! Why must you always . . .” I’m not saying it right, she thought, not any of it.
Bel Kaufman -
Funny, how once you touched off a memory, it was like pulling out a stitch—all the others kept unraveling.
Bel Kaufman