Sinclair Lewis Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• There are so many people in the world who are eager to do for you things that you do not wish done, provided only that you will do for them things that you don't wish to do.

  Sinclair Lewis

  People, Wish, Done

  Sinclair Lewis (1934). “Work of Art”, p.191, Prabhat Prakashan

  5 Copy quote

• So much in a revolution is nothing but waiting.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Waiting, Revolution

  8 Copy quote

• I was brought up to believe that the Christian God wasn't a scared and compromising public servant, but the creator of the whole merciless truth, and I reckon that training spoiled me - I actually took my teachers seriously!

  Sinclair Lewis

  Christian, Teacher, Believe

  "Elmer Gantry". Book by Sinclair Lewis, 1927.

  4 Copy quote

• The cocktail filled him with a whirling exhilaration behind which he was aware of devastating desires—to rush places in fast motors, to kiss girls, to sing, to be witty. ... He perceived that he had gifts of profligacy which had been neglected. —chapter 8

  Sinclair Lewis

  Girl, Witty, Kissing

  4 Copy quote

• He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.

  Sinclair Lewis

  People, Misanthropy, Persons

  Sinclair Lewis (2011). “It Can't Happen Here (搶救美國)”, p.1276, Hyweb Technology Co. Ltd.

  14 Copy quote

• Whatever the misery, he could not regain contentment with a world which, once doubted, became absurd.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Contentment, World, Misery

  Sinclair Lewis (2015). “Babbitt”, p.210, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• Don't be a writer. Writing is an escape from something. You be a scientist.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Writing, Scientist

  4 Copy quote

• Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile. In protest, I declined election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters some years ago, and now I must decline the Pulitzer Prize.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Art, Years, Letters

  Letter declining Pulitzer Prize in fiction (1926)

  4 Copy quote

• The game (baseball)was a custom of his clan, and it gave outlet for the homicidal and sides-taking instincts which Babbitt called "patriotism" and "love of sport."

  Sinclair Lewis

  Sports, Baseball, Games

  Sinclair Lewis (2008). “Babbitt (Volume 1 of 2) (EasyRead Super Large 18pt Edition)”, p.270, ReadHowYouWant.com

  4 Copy quote

• Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years?

  Sinclair Lewis

  Men, Years, Thousand

  "The God-Seeker". Book by Sinclair Lewis. Chapter 33, 1949.

  4 Copy quote

• Fine, large, meaningless, general terms like romance and business can always be related. They take the place of thinking, and are highly useful to optimists and lecturers.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Thinking, Romance, Fine

  Sinclair Lewis (2012). “The Job: An American Novel”, p.44, The Floating Press

  4 Copy quote

• What are these unheard of sins you condemn so much - and like so well?

  Sinclair Lewis

  Sin, Wells, Unheard

  Sinclair Lewis (1924). “Main Street”, p.425, Lulu.com

  4 Copy quote

• A sensational event was changing from the brown suit to the gray the contents of his pockets. He was earnest about these objects. They were of eternal importance, like baseball or the Republican Party.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Baseball, Party, Pockets

  Sinclair Lewis (2015). “Babbitt”, p.19, Penguin

  7 Copy quote

• His name was George F. Babbitt, and . . . he was nimble in the calling of selling houses for more than people could afford to pay.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Names, People, House

  Babbitt ch. 1 (1922)

  4 Copy quote

• It is one of the major tragedies that nothing is more discomforting than the hearty affection of the Old Friends who never were friends.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Old Friends, Tragedy, Affection

  Sinclair Lewis (2002). “Arrowsmith: Elmer Gantry ; Dodsworth”

  4 Copy quote

• Why is it that traveling Americans are always so dreadful?

  Sinclair Lewis

  4 Copy quote

• I have for myself no conceivable complaint to make, and yet for American literature in general, and its standing in a country where industrialism and finance and science flourish and the only arts that are vital and respected are architecture and the film, I have a considerable complaint.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Country, Art, Literature

  Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Sinclair Lewis (1931). “Why Sinclair Lewis got the Nobel prize”

  4 Copy quote

• That nation is proudest and noblest and most exalted which has the greatest number of really great men.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Men, Numbers, Really Great

  Sinclair Lewis (2002). “Arrowsmith: Elmer Gantry ; Dodsworth”

  4 Copy quote

• Unhappy women are given to protecting their sensitiveness by cynical gossip, by whining, by high-church and new-thought religions, or by a fog of vagueness.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Fog, Gossip, Cynical

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.387, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

• There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Insane, Dozen, Dull

  4 Copy quote

• Winter is not a season in the North Middlewest; it is an industry.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Winter, Seasons, Industry

  Sinclair Lewis (2008). “Main Street”, p.146, ReadHowYouWant.com

  4 Copy quote

• The greatest mystery about a human being is not his reaction to sex or praise, but the manner in which he contrives to put in twenty-four hours a day. It is this which puzzles the longshoreman about the clerk, the Londoner about the bushman.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Sex, Clerks, Twenties

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.237, Penguin

  11 Copy quote

• Do you think it's so snobbish, to want to see something besides one's fellow citizens abroad?

  Sinclair Lewis

  Travel, Thinking, Citizens

  7 Copy quote

• Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Thinking, Criticize, Conventional

  "Main Street". Book by Sinclair Lewis, 1920.

  4 Copy quote

• In fact, the whole thing about prohibition is this: it isn't the initial cost, it's the humidity.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Cost, Facts, Prohibition

  Sinclair Lewis (2015). “Babbitt”, p.91, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

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