Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from 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.”
“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”
“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.”
“Banzai! Banzai!”—a rallying cry that meant “Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Don’t borrow trouble from tomorrow,”
“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”
“Courage isn’t having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength. —Theodore Roosevelt”
“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. —Helen Keller”
“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.”
“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.”
