Boarding School Quotes

“In the words of Mr Thierry Coup of Warner Bros: 'We are taking the most iconic and powerful moments of the stories and putting them in an immersive environment. It is taking the theme park experience to a new level.' And of course I wish Thierry and his colleagues every possible luck, and I am sure it will be wonderful. But I cannot conceal my feelings; and the more I think of those millions of beaming kids waving their wands and scampering the Styrofoam turrets of Hogwartse_STmk, and the more I think of those millions of poor put-upon parents who must now pay to fly to Orlando and pay to buy wizard hats and wizard cloaks and wizard burgers washed down with wizard meade_STmk, the more I grind my teeth in jealous irritation.

Because the fact is that Harry Potter is not American. He is British. Where is Diagon Alley, where they buy wands and stuff? It is in London, and if you want to get into the Ministry of Magic you disappear down a London telephone box. The train for Hogwarts goes from King's Cross, not Grand Central Station, and what is Harry Potter all about? It is about the ritual and intrigue and dorm-feast excitement of a British boarding school of a kind that you just don't find in America. Hogwarts is a place where children occasionally get cross with each other—not 'mad'—and where the situation is usually saved by a good old British sense of HUMOUR. WITH A U. RIGHT? NOT HUMOR. GOTTIT?”
― Boris Johnson

“Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Stories, Volume I

“Knightley Academy stood out against the moonlight in silhouette, a ramshackle collection of chimneys, turrets and gables. Both boys stopped to take in the sight of the manicured lawns and tangled woods, the soaring chapel and the ivy-covered brick of the headmaster's house. They were home. For this, Henry felt, was home. Not some foreign castle encircled by guard towers, but this cozy, bizarre assortment of buildings with its gossiping kitchen maids and eccentric professors and clever students.”
― Violet Haberdasher, The Secret Prince

“Someone's boyfriend died in a rock-climbing accident in Switzerland: everyone gathered around her, on fire with tragedy. Their dramatic shows up support underpinned with jealousy- bad luck was rare enough to be glamorous.”
― Emma Cline, The Girls

“... but that's the beauty of boarding school. I make all my own decisions, small and medium, while the big ones are left up to the Prefect Academy - and as far as boys go, to the only expert I know - Suzanne Santry”
― Adriana Trigiani, Viola in Reel Life

“As their eyes became accustomed to the light, the girls were startled to see the figure in front of them. Hunched over, wearing a dark cloak, was an old man. His long, white hair straggled over his shoulders, his skin was covered with grey whiskers and one of his eyes, hooded, drooped below the other bulging one. His mouth hung open and his yellowed teeth did nothing to stop his rank breath pervading the air.”
― Helen Laycock, Mandrake's Plot

“History is all around us and you, my lucky few, are living in some of it..”
― M.J. Colewood, The Last Treasure of Ancient England

“Clear vision holds the key.”
― M.J. Colewood

“I should have known that the cruelty of girls is intensified here, living together 24/7, hundreds of miles away from home.”
― Cat Clarke, Girlhood

“From the opening sentence, it is clear that we are in the presence of a writer with a distinctive voice and uncanny ability to capture the bewilderment and burgeoning anger of a boy struggling to remain true to himself while navigating the hypocritical system he finds himself trapped in… what makes Boy on a Wire much more than a bleak coming-of-age story is Doust’s sharp wit. “Justice not only prevails at Grammar School, it is rampant.” If you know an angry teenager, give this to him.’ — The Age”
― Jon Doust, Boy on a Wire

“…a hilarious, angry and sympathetic portrait of boys behaving badly, teeming with sadistic bullies, imperfect heroes, adolescent onanists and ice-cream gorging hedonists.’— The West Australian”
― Jon Doust, Boy on a Wire

“The novel is apparently autobiographical and is being publicised as such but Doust has done with his material what so many autobiographical novelists fail to do: he has turned it into a shapely story, with no extraneous material or diversions and with an absolutely consistent and convincing narrative voice.’ — Sydney Morning Herald”
― Jon Doust, Boy on a Wire

“The boarding school memoir or novel is an enduring literary subgenre, from 1950s classics such as The Catcher in the Rye to Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep. Doust’s recognisably Australian contribution to the genre draws on his own experiences in a West Australian boarding school in this clever, polished, detail-rich debut novel. From the opening pages, the reader is wholly transported into the head of Jack Muir, a sensitive, sharp-eyed boy from small-town WA who is constantly measured (unfavourably) against his goldenboy brother. The distinctive, masterfully inhabited adolescent narrator recalls the narrator in darkly funny coming-of-age memoir Hoi Polloi (Craig Sherborne)—as does the juxtaposition of stark naivety and carefully mined knowingness.’ — Bookseller+Publisher”
― Jon Doust, Boy on a Wire

“She may not be the prettiest, or the smartest, or the wealthiest at the Academy, but she could be kind. Anyone could be kind.”
― Alleece Balts, The Crowd

“Our midnight feasts aren't so much 'lashings of ginger beer' as 'whatever booze we can smuggle in'.”
― Cat Clarke, Girlhood

“The forward momentum of British educations cannot be resisted: a relentless fascist machine that will spit them out the other side as soldiers or sexless governors-general and the like. All he can do is plant some small seed of independent thought in their minds. He is sorry for them and what is coming: every rottenness and corruption.”
― Polly Clark, Larchfield

“If this person, I kept telling myself, was one of God’s chosen salesmen on earth, then there must be something very wrong about the whole business.”
― Roald Dahl, Innocence

“This was school, and everything he'd feared. Barren, jarring, stale, always lonely and never alone. He had known it would be bad, and it was.”
― Hilary McKay, The Skylarks’ War

“Paul watched him amble into his class-room at the end of the passage, where a burst of applause greeted his arrival. Dumb with terror, he went into his own class-room.
Ten boys sat before him, their hands folded, their eyes bright with expectation.
‘Good morning, sir,’ said the one nearest him.
‘Good morning,’ said Paul.
‘Good morning, sir,’ said the next.
‘Good morning,’ said Paul.
‘Good morning, sir,’ said the next.
‘Oh, shut up,’ said Paul.
At this the boy took out a handkerchief and began to cry quietly.”
― Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall

“…one of those dreadful boarding schools. It was down on the South Coast. I think some very unpleasant things happened there…. So many lives were distorted by such cruelty. I know so many men who had to put up with that, so many….”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Novel Habits of Happiness

“How come you got to start making the bed the minute your feet hit the floor? You need to lighten up, girl. Live a little!' Then she'd laugh, delighted with herself and at my inability to be angry with her.”
― Lorene Cary, Black Ice: A Memoir

“Let the game be ventured!”
― M.J. Colewood

“A horse! A horse! My Dukedom for a horse!" (Duke William at Hastings - The Last Treasure of Ancient England)”
― M.J. Colewood, The Last Treasure of Ancient England

“As for Gus, he had come to Haddan with no appreciation for the human race and no expectations of his fellow man. He was full ready to confront contempt; he'd been beleaguered and insulted often enough to have learned to ignore anything with a heartbeat. Still, every once in a while he made an exception, as he did with Carlin Leander. He appreciated everything about Carlin and lived for the hour when they left their books and sneaked off to the graveyard. Not even the crow nesting in the elm tree could dissuade him from his mission, for when he was beside Carlin, Gus acquired a strange optimism; in the light of her radiance the rest of the world began to shine. For a brief time, bad faith and human weakness could be forgotten or, at the very least, temporarily ignored. When it came time to go back to their rooms, Gus followed on the path, holding on to each moment, trying his best to stretch out time. Standing in the shadows of the rose arbor in order to watch Carlin climb back up the fire escape at St. Anne's, his heart ached. He could tell he was going to be devastated, and yet he was already powerless. Carlin always turned and waved before she stepped through her window and Gus Pierce always waved back, like a common fool, an idiot of a boy who would have done anything to please her.”
― Alice Hoffman, The River King

“Mfundishe mtoto wako maadili mema kwa miaka kumi na tatu, katika umri wa miaka kumi na tatu fikra za mtoto huanza kuwa na maono na utambuzi wa vitu mbalimbali na watoto katika umri huo wanao uwezo wa kuchambua dhana kadha wa kadha za kinadharia na hali kadhalika wanao uwezo wa kuchambua nadharia tata zisizokuwa na hakika na hata zile zenye hakika zisizokuwa tata, kabla hujamkabidhi kwa dunia. Ukimkabidhi mtoto wako kwa dunia kabla ya umri wa miaka kumi na tatu, kama vile kumpeleka katika shule ya bweni au kumpeleka akalelewe na watu wengine ambao si wazazi wake, yale ambayo hukumfundisha atafundishwa na ulimwengu. Mpeleke mtoto wako katika shule ya bweni au kuishi na watu wengine akiwa amefundishwa maadili mema. Kinyume cha hapo atafundishwa na shule au watu wengine kwa kudharauliwa, kuchukiwa na kuadabishwa.”
― Enock Maregesi

“I'm never going to send my children to boarding school. The boys can go to P.S. 148 with gangsters, and then go to Columbia & the girls can go to Hunter College and they'll all be morons but at least they wont have to tear around and get their teeth knocked out playing hockey every day.

[Letter to R. Beverley Corbin, Jr, 3 October 1946]”
― Jackie Kennedy Onassis

“There was only one thing worse than an awkward conversation, and that was when your best friend grabbed the book out of your hand and forced you to leave it in the dorm.”
― Allie Sarah, The Gossip Games

“My roommate, Remi, was a kid from Haiti who was at Saint Ignatius on a scholarship. The day I moved into the dorm he was losing his mind because the leaves on some of the maple trees on campus were starting to turn red. He’d never seen anything like it.”
― Emilie-Noelle Provost, The River is Everywhere

“Indian boarding schools began in 1860, with the first school being established on the Yakima Indian Reservation in Washington State. These schools were designed to take Native American youths and mold them into members of" civilized society "; to make them White. The schools taught the basics of education, such as arithmetic, but also taught the students to practice Christianity and that the political structures of the United States were ideal for everyone. The actual goal was to eradicate every ounce of Native cultures.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity

“Pratt created the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and his motto was" kill the Indian, save the man. "At this school, and others that would open and follow in its wake, tens of thousands of Native children faced abuse and neglect. They were often forcibly removed from their homes and taken to these schools that were sometimes across the country from their original lives. When they arrived, the children were forced to cut their hair and change their names. They were made to become White in look and label, stripped of any semblance of Native heritage. The children were not allowed to speak their Native tongues, some of them not knowing anything else. They were prohibited from acting in any way that might reflect the only culture they had ever known.
At Pratt's Carlisle Indian Industrial School alone, the numbers revealed the truth of what this treatment did. Of the ten thousand children from 141 different tribes across the country, only a small fraction of them ever graduated. According to the Carlisle Indian School Project, there are 180 marked graves of Native children who died while attending. There were even more children who died while held captive at the Carlisle school and others across the county. Their bodies are only being discovered in modern times, exhumed by the army and people doing surveys of the land who are finding unmarked burial sites. An autograph book from one of the schools was found in the historical records with one child's message to a friend, "Please remember me when I'm in the grave."
The US Bureau of Indian Affairs seemed to think Pratt had the right idea and made his school the model for more. There ended up being more than 350 government-funded boarding schools for Natives in the United States. Most of them followed the same ideology: Never let the children be themselves. Beat their language out of them. Punish them for practicing their cultures.
Pratt and his followers certainly killed plenty of Indians, but they didn't save a damn thing.”
― Leah Myers, Thinning Blood: A Memoir of Family, Myth, and Identity