Thornton Wilder Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?

  Thornton Wilder

  Realize Life, Realizing, Our Town

  Our Town act 3 (1938)

  8 Copy quote

• Life is an unbroken succession of false situations.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Inspire, Unbroken

  Thornton Wilder, Jackson R. Bryer (1992). “Conversations with Thornton Wilder”, p.80, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  7 Copy quote

• Doctors are mostly impostors. The older a doctor is and the more venerated he is, the more he must pretend to know everything. Of course, they grow worse with time. Always look for a doctor who is hated by the best doctors. Always seek out a bright young doctor before he comes down with nonsense.

  Thornton Wilder

  Doctors, Looks, Nonsense

  unknown

  4 Copy quote

• Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations.

  Thornton Wilder

  Night, Sky, Singing

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

  10 Copy quote

• A living is made, Mr Kemper, by selling something that everybody needs at least once a year.Yes, sir! And a million ismade by producing something that everybody needs every day.You artists produce something that nobody needs at any time.

  Thornton Wilder

  Time, Artist, Years

  1954 The Matchmaker, act 1.

  4 Copy quote

• When you're at war, you think about a better life; when you're at peace you think about a more comfortable one.

  Thornton Wilder

  Peace, War, Thinking

  1942 The Skin of Our Teeth, act 1.

  8 Copy quote

• A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference. It pardons shortcomings, it consoles failure.

  Thornton Wilder

  Humor, Judging, Action

  "The Eighth Day". Book by Thornton Wilder, 1967.

  17 Copy quote

• On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.

  Thornton Wilder

  Friday, July, Bridges

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

  4 Copy quote

• People were always asking for good sound proofs; doubt springs eternal in the human breast, even in countries where the Inquisition can read your very thoughts in your eyes.

  Thornton Wilder

  Country, Spring, Eye

  Thornton Wilder (2014). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel”, p.9, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• If a man has no vices, he is in great danger of making vices about his virtues, and there's a spectacle.

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Vices, Virtue

  Thornton Wilder, Jackson R. Bryer (1992). “Conversations with Thornton Wilder”, p.122, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  4 Copy quote

• The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs.

  Thornton Wilder

  Ideas, Tides, Cliffs

  Thornton Wilder (2014). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel”, p.12, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to.

  Thornton Wilder

  Country, Travel, Want

  Thornton Wilder (1968). “Our town: a play in three acts”

  6 Copy quote

• But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

  Thornton Wilder

  Excellence, Technique, Sincerity

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

  5 Copy quote

• The best part of married life is the fights. The rest is merely so-so.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Marriage, Fighting

  The Matchmaker act 2 (1954)

  7 Copy quote

• Many plays - certainly mine - are like blank checks. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.

  Thornton Wilder

  Play, Signatures, Directors

  The New York Mirror, July 13, 1956.

  8 Copy quote

• The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.

  Thornton Wilder

  Writing, Winning, Way

  Interview in "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series", edited by Malcolm Cowley, 1958.

  11 Copy quote

• I am not interested in the ephemeral - such subjects as the adulteries of dentists. I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.

  Thornton Wilder

  Ephemeral, Adultery, Dentist

  1961 In the New York Times, 6 Mar.

  7 Copy quote

• I was an old man when I was 12; and now I am an old man, AND IT'S SPLENDID!

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Splendid, Old Man

  8 Copy quote

• I rose by sheer military ability to the rank of corporal.

  Thornton Wilder

  Military, Rose, Soldier

  7 Copy quote

• Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.

  Thornton Wilder

  Giving, Awkward, Style

  Interview in "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series", edited by Malcolm Cowley, 1958.

  5 Copy quote

• Everybody's talking about people breaking into houses but there are more people in the world who want to break out of houses.

  Thornton Wilder

  Talking, Perspective, People

  Thornton Wilder (1966). “Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker”

  7 Copy quote

• I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me.

  Thornton Wilder

  Reading, Book, Writing

  Thornton Wilder, Jackson R. Bryer (1992). “Conversations with Thornton Wilder”, p.78, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  6 Copy quote

• There's nothing like mixing with women to bring out all the foolishness in a man of sense.

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Mixing, Men And Women

  "Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater".

  6 Copy quote

• She had never realized any love save love as passion. Such love, though it expends itself in generosity and thoughtfulness, though it give birth to visions and to great poetry, remains among the sharpest expressions of self-interest. Not until it has passed though a long servitude, though its own self-hatred, though mockery, though great doubts, can it take its place among the loyalties. Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.

  Thornton Wilder

  Loyalty, Dog, Children

  7 Copy quote

• The condition of leadership adds new degrees of solitariness to the basic solitude of mankind. Every order that we issue increases the extent to which we are alone, and every show of deference which is extended to us separates us from our fellows.

  Thornton Wilder

  Leadership, Order, Issues

  Thornton Wilder (1987). “The ides of March”, HarperCollins

  8 Copy quote

Page 4 of 6

First

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

6

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin