Shaman Quotes

“young ones with respect for their digestions. “Well, you can’t feed it to them anymore. It’s gone way too high.” Her mouth became a straight line. “Not so high. It’s well-salted; we’ve eaten worse. If it’s that bad, the others would be sick and so would I.” He knew enough about homesteaders of whatever religious persuasion to hear what she was really saying: the sausage was all there was, they ate spoiled sausage or nothing. He nodded and walked back to his own seat. His food was in a cornucopia twisted from sheets of the Cincinnati Commercial, three thick sandwiches of lean beef on dark German bread, a strawberry-jam tart, and two apples that he juggled for a few moments to make the children laugh. When he gave the food to Mrs. Sperber, she opened her mouth as though to protest, but then she closed it. A homesteader’s wife needs a healthy dose of realism. “We are obliged to thee, friend,” she said. Across the aisle, the blond woman watched,”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“experienced,” Rob J. said.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Constitution was that it foresaw man’s weakness of character and the continuing presence of evil in the world, and sought to make individual freedom the legal reality to which the country had to return again and again.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“half a dozen”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“mutton,”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Now he saw that the genius of those who had written the Constitution was that it foresaw man’s weakness of character and the continuing presence of evil in the world, and sought to make individual freedom the legal reality to which the country had to return again and again.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“freshet,”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“leather”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“He wanted his life to be painted with the strongest colors he could find.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Los protestantes nativos aborrecían y oprimían a católicos e inmigrantes, y los católicos e inmigrantes despreciaban y asesinaban a los negros, como si cada grupo viviera de su odio y necesitara el alimento que proporcionaba el tuétano de alguien más débil.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“He realized the lesson was that science can take medicine only so far. Then it is helped tremendously if there is faith or belief in something else.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Do not be reluctant to value yourself highly, for others do so. Nor should you hesitate to aspire to any goal, because God has been lavish in his gifts to you.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“When Rob J. had prepared for citizenship he’d studied the United States Constitution and marveled at its provisions. Now he saw that the genius of those who had written the Constitution was that it foresaw man’s weakness of character and the continuing presence of evil in the world, and sought to make individual freedom the legal reality to which the country had to return again and again.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Native-born Protestants loathed and oppressed Catholics and immigrants, and Catholics and immigrants scorned and murdered Negroes, as if each group fed off its hate, needing the nourishment provided by the bone marrow of someone weaker.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“They thirsted to fight because the war existed, and because it had been officially declared admirable and patriotic to kill. That was enough.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“They hired her for $ 17.50 a term, $ 1.50 less than Mr. Byers because she was a woman.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Rob J.’ s revelation was science, a faith less comfortable and far less comforting. Truth was its deity, proof was its state of grace, doubt was its liturgy. It held as many mysteries as other religions and was beset with shadowy trails that led to profound dangers, terrifying cliffs, and the deepest pits. No higher power shed a light to illuminate the dark and murky way, and he had only his own frail judgment with which to choose the paths to safety.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“There was a good Constitution in America, and he had read it carefully. It gave liberty, but he recognized that it worked only for people in skins whose color ran from pink to tan. People with darker skins might as well have fur or feathers.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“He cherished all those he treated, even the ones made mean by their sickness, even the ones he knew had been mean before they’d become sick, because by seeking his help, somehow they became his.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“All his life Rob J., struggling to salvage people from the afflictions that bring about physical and mental failures, was surprised at how much it hurt him when the patient was someone he loved.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“It’s because the ignorant bastards consider me a foreigner, even though I was born in South Carolina and some of them were born in Europe,” he complained hotly to Rob J. “They don’t trust me. They hate the Irish and the Jews and the Chinese and the Italians, and God knows who all, for coming to America too late. They hate the French and the Mormons on general principles. And they hate the Indians for being in America too early. Who the hell do they like?” Rob grinned at him. “Why, Jay … they like themselves! They think they are just right, having had the sensibility to arrive at exactly the correct time,” he said.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“He felt the same way about pulling teeth as he did about amputating limbs, hating to take away something he was never going to be able to put back.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“They don’t trust me. They hate the Irish and the Jews and the Chinese and the Italians, and God knows who all, for coming to America too late. They hate the French and the Mormons on general principles. And they hate the Indians for being in America too early. Who the hell do they like?”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Yet slavery isn’t the real cause of the trouble between the regions. It is economics. The South sells its cotton and sugar to England and Europe, and buys manufactured goods from those places instead of from the industrial North. The South has decided it has no need for the rest of the United States of America. Despite Mr. Lincoln’s speeches against slavery, that is the sore that festers.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“Mississippi abajo en un barco de”
― Noah Gordon, Chamán

“Xamã uma vez ou outra ouvia os ecos amedrontadores da iminência da guerra nos Estados Unidos.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman

“No seu primeiro domingo em Galesburg, o diretor e a Sra. Hammond o levaram à igreja presbiteriana, mas depois disso Xamã disse a eles que era congregacionista e, aos estudantes de religião, dizia que era presbiteriano, assim, todas as manhãs de domingo, ele podia passear livremente pela cidade.”
― Noah Gordon, Shaman