"I can't tell you the joy I felt in flying in that show … I loved it so. The freedom of spirit that was Peter Pan was suddenly there for me. I discovered I was happier in the air than on the ground."

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“Even as a baby I quickly learned to crawl out of my crib. … They'd put up barriers but I learned how to go over them.”

“Photos of Mary Martin, hosted by the Portal to Texas History”

“Never, never, never can I say I had a frustrating childhood. It was all joy. Mother used to say she never had seen such a happy child — that I awakened each morning with a smile. I don’t remember that, but I do remember that I never wanted to go to bed, to go to sleep, for fear I’d miss something.”

“Mother was the disciplinarian, but it was Daddy who could turn me into an angel with just one look.”

“Anything was better than playing cards, and I was doing something I wanted to do — creating.”

“Things can get very lovey and feasty with a bunch of stimulated hams.”

Resonant Thoughts

"America's got a much stronger tradition of free speech and freedom of the press. In Europe, it's much more nuanced and they put a lot of meaning on the rights of your reputation."

— Noam Cohen

Literature

#freedom

"Popery is such a thing as cannot, but for want of a word to express it, be called a religion; nor is it to be mentioned with that civility which is otherwise decent to be used in speaking about the di…"

— Andrew Marvell

Politics1621–1678

#wisdom

"The progressive world is necessarily divided into two classes — those who take the best of what there is and enjoy it — those who wish for something better and try to create it. Without these two clas…"

— Florence Nightingale

Medicine1820–1910

#happiness

"There is a plot. What would be the point of just a bunch of things? There's a story, but the story can hold abstractions. I believe in story. I believe in characters. But I believe in a story that hol…"

— David Lynch

Entertainment1970–2011

#justice