I want to leave something
behind when I go; some small legacy of truth, some word that will
shine in a dark place.
—Nellie McClung
In Canada we are developing a pattern of life and I know something
about one block of that pattern . . . I helped make it.
—Nellie McClung
As I read and thought and marveled, a light shone around me. I
knew in that radiance what a writer can be at his best, an
interpreter, a revealer of secrets, a heavenly surgeon, a sculptor who
can bring an angel out of a stone.
And I wanted to write. . . .I wanted to reveal humanity; to make
people understand each other; to make the commonplace things divine. .
.
—Nellie McClung
Canada is destined to be one of the great nations of the world and
Canadian women must be ready for citizenship.
—Nellie McClung, The Stream Runs Fast
Sex prejudice and the male superiority complex, built up since
time began, will not go out in one generation. And we, who have
emerged from the shadows of the past, and are set free from many of
its illusions, but are not yet received as members in full standing of
the human family, chafe under some of its restrictions that are still
laid upon us.
—Nellie McClung, 1929