My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out. There are going to be times in your life when you're going to have to stick your neck out.
Ruth Westheimer
Trinity College Commencement, 2004, 2004
Die Geschichte hinter diesem Zitat
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the legendary sex therapist and talk show host who stood 4'7", drew on her remarkable life story to make this point. Born into an orthodox Jewish family in Frankfurt, Germany, she was put on a train to Switzerland at age 10 to escape the Nazis. Almost all 300 children on that train became orphans, including her. In Switzerland, the girls weren't allowed to study academics — they had to study housekeeping while the boys got real educations. Her first degree, at 16, was as a Swiss housekeeper. This early denial of education made her doctorate from Columbia Teachers College decades later worth more than gold or diamonds. She later became a kindergarten teacher, a college professor, and finally, in her mid-50s, the world-famous Dr. Ruth — all because she kept sticking her neck out.