William Dean Howells Quotes

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

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.

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.

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Primitive societies without religion have never been found.

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.

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.

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

People naturally despise a dependant.

The difficulty is to know conscience from self-interest.

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

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.

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

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

How strange it (the earthquake) must all have seemed to them, here where they lived so safely always! They thought such a dreadful thing could happen to others, but not to them. That is the way!

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

Does it afflict you to find your books wearing out? I mean literally .. . the mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me but that of books most of all.

Every one is expected to look out for himself here. I fancy that there would be very little rising if men were expected to rise for the sake of others, in America.

Ah, we shall never have a real aristocracy while this plebeian reluctance to live upon a parent or a wife continues the animating spirit of our youth. It strikes at the foot of the feudal system!

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