# Quote — Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Dance on the Volcano

> At twelve, she already understood many things. She accepted them as inevitable, yet questioned them all the same. Why? Why were things this way and not another? Why were some people rich and others poor? Why did people beat their slaves? Why were some masters kind and others cruel, some priests good and others evil? Why did catechism teach the things it did and why did the priests act the way they did? They said: we are all brothers, but then they bought slaves and beat or otherwise tortured them. Why should she have to hide herself in order to learn to read? Why had Rosélia, one of the neighborhood vendors, been imprisoned for hiding a runaway slave? And above all, why - knowing what could happen - had she hidden that slave, who she did not even know? (chapter I, p17)

- Author: [Marie Vieux-Chauvet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marie-vieux-chauvet.md)
- Book: [Dance on the Volcano](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marie-vieux-chauvet/dance-on-the-volcano.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marie_Vieux-Chauvet#Dance_on_the_Volcano_(1957)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/marie-vieux-chauvet/dance-on-the-volcano/at-twelve-she

## More from this book

> Minette pushed away her plate and stood up. What she wouldn't have given to be alone for a moment, just a moment. Oh, to have a room of my own, to be able to close myself up somewhere to think and to cry as much as I want! she thought to herself. (chapter IX, p120)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marie-vieux-chauvet/dance-on-the-volcano/minette-pushed-away.md)

> The volcano, which for long years the planters did not believe existed, was erupting. (chapter XXXV p473)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marie-vieux-chauvet/dance-on-the-volcano/the-volcano-which.md)

> The eyes, if one knows them well, rarely lie (chapter XXII, p342)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/marie-vieux-chauvet/dance-on-the-volcano/the-eyes-if-one.md)