If they had (the death penalty) and needed somebody to push the button, I'd volunteer to do it to get him out of my life.
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There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
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Every writer is necessarily a critic -- that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on. The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg -- nine-tenths of him is under water.
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For what human ill does dawn not seem to be alternative?
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I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts.
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Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.
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A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it.
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The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape.
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Life is an unbroken succession of false situations.
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The planting of trees in the least self-centered of all that we can do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.
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The planting of trees is the least self-centered of all that we can do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.
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The habit of saving is itself an education. It fosters every virtue, teaches self-denial, cultivates the sense of order, trains to forethought, and so broadens the mind.
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My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate--that's my philosophy.
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It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.
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The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, 'Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess I wish I were sitting quietly at home.' And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.
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There is no road to success but through a clear strong purpose. Nothing can take its place. A purpose underlies character, culture, position, attainment of every part.
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Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she's a householder.
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Never support two weaknesses at the same time. It's your combination sinners -- your lecherous liars and your miserly drunkards -- who dishonor the vices and bring them into bad repute.
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Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want.
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I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.
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Mary Kate Danaher: Don't touch me. You have no right. Sean Thornton: Whadya mean no right!...
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I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for...
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The unencumbered stage encourages the truth operative in everyone. The less seen, the more heard. The eye is the enemy of the ear in real drama.
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A play visibly represents pure existing.
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Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.
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Only a weak mind seeks ultimate answers.
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I do borrow from other writers, shamelessly I can only say in my defense, like the woman brought before the judge on a charge of kleptomania, I do steal, but, your Honor, only from the very best stores.
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Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.
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Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.
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Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.
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