His Family

“And there came to him a feeling which he had often had before in many different places--that he himself was a part of all this, the great, blind, wistful soul of mankind, which had been here before he was born and would be here when he was dead--still groping, yearning, struggling upward, on and on--to something distant as the sun. And still would he be part of it all, through the eager lives of his children.””

— Ernest Poole

“It's hard to keep up with your children,' he said. 'It means keeping up with everything new. And you stay in your rut and then it's too late. Before you know it you are old.””

— Ernest Poole

“He saw each of his daughters, part of himself. And he remembered what Judith had said: 'You will live on in our children's lives.' And he began to get glimmerings of a new immortality, made up of generations, an endless succession of other lives extending into the future.””

— Ernest Poole

“Queer, how a man can neglect his children, as I have done ... when the thing he wants most in life is to see each one ...happy.””

— Ernest Poole

“Yes, read about jobs and your hours and wages. Yes, you must strike, you must have better lives. But you must read also about the stars”

— Ernest Poole

“I wonder if it won't be the same with the children as it has been with us. No matter how long each one of them lives, won't their lives feel to them unfinished like ours, only just beginning? I wonder how far they will go. And then their children will grow up and it will be the same with them. Unfinished lives. Oh, dearie, what children all of us are.””

— Ernest Poole

“You're like nearly all American women--married or single, young or old--you're all of you scared to death about sex--just as your Puritan mothers were! And you leave it alone--you keep it down--you never give it a chance--you're afraid! But I'm not afraid--and I'm living my life! And let me tell you I'm not alone! There are hundreds and thousands doing the same--right here in New York City to-night! It's been abroad for years and years--in Rome and Berlin, in Paris and London--and now, thank God, it has come over here! If our husbands can do it, why can't we?””

— Ernest Poole

“Would Edith ever be like that, a mere custodian of the past? If she did, he thought, she would be false to the very traditions she tried to preserve. For her forefathers had never been mere guardians of things gone by. Always they had been pioneers. That house had not been old to them, but a thrilling new adventure.””

— Ernest Poole

“When the women get the vote, we'll spend more money on the children.””

— Ernest Poole