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I knew he could learn — if he didn't get killed first. It was sink or swim for him — and happens he's swimming.

— Esther Forbes Johnny Tremain (1943)

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More quotes by Esther Forbes

"A man can stand up to anything with a good weapon in his hands. Without it, he's but a dumb beast."

Johnny Tremain (1943)

"Just like the sun coming up yonder out of the sea, pushing rays of light ahead of it."

Johnny Tremain (1943)

Women have almost a genius for anticlimaxes.

O Genteel Lady! (1926)

Hundreds would die, but not the thing they died for. A man can stand up.

Johnny Tremain (1943)

Most American heroes of the Revolutionary period are by now two men, the actual man and the romantic image. Some are even three men—the actual man, the image, and the debunked remains.

Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (1942)

All Esther Forbes quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Esther Forbes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.