“The tears of sorrow and despair I felt were like a DNA trigger, to remember what my ancestors must have experienced so many generations ago.”

— Sharon Barber, upon seeing the “Cash Crop” exhibit on slavery at Waterworks Visual Art Center

“I told them, ‘Jesus saved my soul from hell, and you saved my life from death.’ ”

— Norman Towell, truck driver, on talking to rescue workers who got him out of his wrecked rig in Indianapolis in 2013

“There’s no victory. There is no celebration. There are no winners.”

— Lori Hamilton, defense attorney, after client Kevin Canzator pled guilty to his part in the 2012 murder of convenience store owner Hecham Abualeinan

“The tragic part of it was the war was already over.”

— Dr. Norman Sloop, Civil War buff, on the April 12, 1865 raid on Salisbury by Maj. Gen. George Stoneman and his 4,000 Union troops

“We were lucky to have Stoneman instead of Sherman.”

— Kaye Brown Hirst, Rowan Museum director, on Stoneman’s sparing of the county courthouse and its records