William Faulkner Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Pouring out liquor is like burning books.

  William Faulkner

  Book, Burning, Pouring

  60 Copy quote

• Your illusions are a part of you like your bones and flesh and memory.

  William Faulkner

  Memories, Flesh, Bones

  William Faulkner (1951). “Absalom, Absalom!”

  17 Copy quote

• It's not when you realize that nothing can help you — religion, pride, anything — it's when you realize that you don't need any aid.

  William Faulkner

  Pride, Religion, Needs

  "The Sound And The Fury".

  15 Copy quote

• The ideal woman which is in every man's mind is evoked by a word or phrase or the shape of her wrist, her hand. The most beautiful description of a woman is by understatement. Remember, all Tolstoy ever said to describe Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat. Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.

  William Faulkner

  Beautiful, Women, Cat

  Quoted in Reader's Digest, Mar. 1973

  80 Copy quote

• I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail...because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Believe, Sacrifice

  117 Copy quote

• Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.

  William Faulkner

  Memories, Believe, August

  William Faulkner (1972). “Light in August”, Vintage

  163 Copy quote

• At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance-that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be-curiosity-to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got it or not.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Thinking, Men

  141 Copy quote

• So, never be afraid. Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed. If you, not just you in this room tonight, but in all the thousands of other rooms like this one about the world today and tomorrow and next week, will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.

  William Faulkner

  Honesty, Lying, Men

  223 Copy quote

• To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Equality, Alaska

  William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.101, Modern Library

  160 Copy quote

• All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the base of our splendid failure to do the impossible.

  William Faulkner

  Dream, Possible And Impossible, Perfection

  1956 On his generation of writers. Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

  13 Copy quote

• People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.

  William Faulkner

  People, Matter, Sin

  William Faulkner (1964). “As I Lay Dying”, GoodBook Classics

  8 Copy quote

• No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual's individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol - cross or crescent or whatever - that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race.

  William Faulkner

  Mean, Men, Race

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  98 Copy quote

• I draw no petty social lines. A man to me is a man, wherever I find him.

  William Faulkner

  Men, Lines, Social

  William Faulkner “The Sound and the Fury”, W. W. Norton & Company

  7 Copy quote

• People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.

  William Faulkner

  Strength, Mean, Artist

  39 Copy quote

• Civilization begins with distillation

  William Faulkner

  Hipster, Civilization, Alcohol

  65 Copy quote

• The salvation of the world is in man's suffering.

  William Faulkner

  Men, World Suffering, Salvation

  William Faulkner (1994). “Novels 1942-1954”

  58 Copy quote

• The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it.

  William Faulkner

  Love, Inspirational, Wisdom

  William Faulkner (2011). “Flags in the Dust: The complete text of Faulkner's third novel, which appeared in a cut version as Sartoris”, p.68, Vintage

  40 Copy quote

• A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune

  William Faulkner

  Tired, Men, Thinking

  William Faulkner (2011). “FAULKNER READER”, p.104, Modern Library

  60 Copy quote

• She was bored. She loved, had capacity to love, for love, to give and accept love. Only she tried twice and failed twice to find somebody not just strong enough to deserve it, earn it, match it, but even brave enough to accept it.

  William Faulkner

  Strong, Capacity To Love, Giving

  William Faulkner (1999). “Novels, 1957-1962”

  163 Copy quote

• The books I read are the ones I knew and loved when I was a young man and to which I return as you do to old friends.

  William Faulkner

  Book, Men, Old Friends

  47 Copy quote

• An artist is a creature driven by demons. He don't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why.

  William Faulkner

  Inspiring, Art, Wonder

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  59 Copy quote

• Try to be better than yourself.

  William Faulkner

  Trying

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  10 Copy quote

• There are some things for which three words are three too many, and three thousand words that many words too less.

  William Faulkner

  Three, Thousand, Three Words

  William Faulkner (1951). “Absalom, Absalom!”

  60 Copy quote

• Success is feminine and like a woman, if you cringe before her, she will override you

  William Faulkner

  Feminine, Ifs, Cringe

  1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

  7 Copy quote

• I love Virginians because Virginians are all snobs and I like snobs. A snob has to spend so much time being a snob that he has little time left to meddle with you.

  William Faulkner

  Littles, Time Left, Snob

  26 Copy quote

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