William Dean Howells quotes

What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending. (William Dean Howells)
The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all. View quote
William Dean Howells
He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence. View quote
William Dean Howells
The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested. View quote
William Dean Howells
See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusion; See how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious. View quote
William Dean Howells
An artistic atmosphere does not create artists a literary atmosphere does not create literators; poets and painters spring up where there was never a verse made or a picture seen. This suggests that God is no more idle now than He was at the beginning, but that He is still and forever shaping the human chaos into the instruments and means of beauty. View quote
William Dean Howells
Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice? View quote
William Dean Howells
The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection. View quote
William Dean Howells
We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these. View quote
William Dean Howells
Christ and the life of Christ is at this moment inspiring the literature of the world as never before, and raising it up a witness against waste and want and war. It may confess Him, as in Tolstoi's work it does, or it may deny Him, but it cannot exclude Him; and in the degree that it ignores His spirit, modern literature is artistically inferior. In other words, all good literature is now Christmas literature. View quote
William Dean Howells
The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment. (William Dean Howells)
Lord, for the erring thought Not into evil wrought: Lord, for the wicked will Betrayed and baffled still: For the heart from itself kept, Our thanksgiving accept. View quote
William Dean Howells
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. View quote
William Dean Howells
Her mouth is a honey-blossom, No doubt, as the poet sings; But within her lips, the petals, Lurks a cruel bee that stings. View quote
William Dean Howells
And before you know me gone Eternity and I are one. View quote
William Dean Howells
We live, but a world has passed away With the years that perished to make us men. View quote
William Dean Howells
I am not sorry for having wrought in common, crude material so much; that is the right American stuff; and perhaps hereafter, when my din is done, if anyone is curious to know what that noise was, it will be found to have proceeded from a small insect which was scraping about on the surface of our life and trying to get into its meaning for the sake of the other insects larger or smaller. That is, such has been my unconscious work; consciously, I was always, as I still am, trying to fashion a piece of literature out of the life next at hand. View quote
William Dean Howells
Clemens was sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature. View quote
William Dean Howells
It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom. View quote
William Dean Howells
You'll find as you grow older that you weren't born such a great while ago after all. The time shortens up. View quote
William Dean Howells
In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere. (William Dean Howells)
Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart. View quote
William Dean Howells
Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week. View quote
William Dean Howells
How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us? View quote
William Dean Howells
Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself. View quote
William Dean Howells