W. D. Howells Quotes

It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom.

You may live in a crowd but you meet God and face eternity alone

Living faith is above circumstances; no delays can discourage it, no loss of friends or depression in trade can touch it.

The Lord always shows you all the difficulties when He is going to do anything through you.

The promises of God are equal to current coin. Therefore, I must act on the promises as I would if I actually had the cash.

Deliverance is always found on 'the mount'; living faith must first prove to God that it has taken His word and promise for victory.

In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.

The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested.

A man never sees all that his mother has been to him until it's too late to let her know that he sees it.

An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.

What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending.

The wars come and go in blood and tears; but whether they are bad wars, or what are comically called good wars, they are of one effect in death and sorrow.

The Bible is common-sense inspired.

Some people stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.

If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer; if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank.

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.

A friend knows how to allow for mere quantity in your talk, and only replies to the quality.

Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.

The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.

The disposition to give a cup of cold water to a disciple is a far nobler property than the finest intellect. Satan has a fine intellect, but not the image of God.

You'll find as you grow older that you weren't born such a great while ago after all. The time shortens up.

If ever the public was betrayed by its press, it's ours.

Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?

There will presently be no room in the world for things; it will be filled up with the advertisements of things.

We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.

Primitive societies without religion have never been found.

The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.

Lord, for the erring thoughtNot into evil wrought:Lord, for the wicked willBetrayed and baffled still:For the heart from itself kept,Our thanksgiving accept.

The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.

I wonder why we hate the past so.

Each one of us must suffer long to himself before he can learn that he is but one in a great community of wretchedness which has been pitilessly repeating itself from the foundation of the world.

The book which you read from a sense of duty, or because for any reason you must, does not commonly make friends with you.

How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?

By beauty of course I mean truth, for the one involves the other; it is only the false in art which is ugly, and it is only the ugly that is universal.

It is the curse of prosperity that it takes work away from us, and shuts that door to hope and health of spirit.

The difficulty is to know conscience from self-interest.

People naturally despise a dependant.

Preach the blessings of our deeply incorporated civilization by the mouths of our eight-inch guns.

Why art thou but a nest of gloom While the bobolinks are singing?

See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusion;See how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious.

The surest way to hurt yourself is to give up on love, just because it didn’twork out the first time.

The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

In those moments it's hard to remember that an angry voice is an invisible thing incapable of drawing blood.

That's how birthdays were in our house. All hateful charades of pretty clothes, expensive presents, and ugly words . . .

You can only take steps toward the future you want. It's not guaranteed to be there.

I wish you to believe whatever you think is true, at any and every cost.

Real friends don't leave those who shout and scream, they just stand back and leave them until they are ready to calm down...

It is not easy being different, you just have to accept it and say sod YOU!!!

There are those that can and those that can't, which catagory are you???