When We Had Wings Quotes

“Don’t borrow trouble from tomorrow,”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul And sings the tune without the words And never stops at all. —Emily Dickinson”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. —Helen Keller”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“This is the dance of life, isn’t it? she mused to herself. As the music changes, the steps change, and so then does the dancer. But the people we choose to dance with, well, they remain as close to our beating hearts as we will hold them, don’t they?”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“For as the three of them stood there, on the cusp of hugs and tears and ramblings of stories, it was as if a lifetime had passed—and somehow no time at all.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“By noon Wainwright had sent Charley Russell and another officer to lower the American flag from the pole outside the main entrance into the Malinta Tunnel. They replaced it with a white bedsheet. The task took a full five minutes to complete, and a bugler played “Taps” through the intercom system the entire time.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“We don’t know what they will do, but we know what we will do, don’t we? We will honor our country, our oath to the Navy, and our pledge to minister to the sick and hurting. That’s what we will do.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Don’t borrow trouble from tomorrow,” she heard her father saying from within the folds of her memory.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Rituals were important in this place, she’d learned. Do certain things in a certain order, and it gave you a sense of normalcy.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Lita smiled genuinely. It was a response she would have otherwise needed to muster. The expectations were drilled into her since nursing school: She was to raise spirits to aid in mending. No looking glum regardless of diagnosis; no look of shock or revulsion at any wound. Moreover, she was to maintain a gay and ladylike composure, hair and face primped—complete with rouge, powder, and lipstick—even, rather ridiculously, here in the jungle.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“She’d seen in this war the very worst one human could do to another. But she’d also seen the very best. Perhaps only the people who see the very worst get to see the very best. Or maybe it was just that because she’d seen the worst”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“It had also been a wonderful life. Not a life entirely full of wonderful events. No, not by a long shot. But a wonderful life in its own way. She’d seen in this war the very worst one human could do to another. But she’d also seen the very best. Perhaps only the people who see the very worst get to see the very best.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Here is the truth: General Douglas MacArthur allowed these women to be taken captive. He had an opportunity in April 1942 to evacuate all Army and Filipina nurses from Corregidor and out of the Philippines, but he chose to take other military personnel instead.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Hope hadn’t killed David; evil men had. Hope had been his companion until the very end. And even then, hope had escorted him from this life to the next. Hope had done that. Not fear. Not defeat. Not gunshot wounds. David had been right to hold on to hope. He’d been right to tell her to do the same. Hope would see her through, too, even if tomorrow”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“As the first American female prisoners of war, you have a special place in the history books. But to have served four years as prisoners, in combat conditions, you have my respect as well.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Banzai! Banzai!”—a rallying cry that meant “Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength. —Theodore Roosevelt”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“It had been a wonderful life. Not a life full of wonderful event. No, not by a long shot. But a wonderful life in its own way. She’d seen in this war the very worst one human could do to another. But she’d also seen the very best. Perhaps only the people who see the very worst get to see the very best.
Or maybe it was just that because she’d seen the worst, she’d been able to recognize the best.
That was its own kind of wonderful.
Hope, she was discovering, could do that. It could let a person see the glorious light of the sun from even the darkest corner of a dungeon—even if wishing the dungeon there was no way out. Even if the dungeon was the last place you’d see this side of heaven.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings

“It felt good to find words of hope from within her, it felt good to see Peg’s face brighten just the tiniest bit. This was their task: find a new way to survive.
She could see so clearly now that this was what David had been trying to tell her all along. Hope was what kept you putting one foot in front of the other. Hope was what kept you laying down your head at night and rising from your cot the next morning. Hope was what kept you mopping fevered brows and changing dressings and administering aspirin. Hope was what made you pick at husks of rice until your fingers bled.
Hope was what sent you out into a forbidden village to get food for starving children.
Hope hadn’t killed David; evil men had. Hope had been his companion until the very end. And even then, hope had escorted him from this life to the next. Hope had done that. Not fear. Not defeat. Not gunshot wounds.
Hope would see her through, too, even if tomorrow was to be her last day on earth.”
― Ariel Lawhon, When We Had Wings