Quotes from William Dean Howells

She had conquered, but she had also necessarily lost much. Perhaps what she had lost was not worth keeping; but at any rate she had lost it.

I wish you to believe whatever you think is true, at any and every cost.

I haven't done anything--yet.

It's astonishing how well the worse reason looks when you try to make it appear the better.

I am yours, for time and eternity--time and eternity.

It's easy enough to be sensible for other people. But when it comes to myself, there I am! Especially, when I want to do what I oughtn't so much that it seems as if doing what I didn't want to do MUST be doing what I ought!

How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?

I wonder why we hate the past so.

The book which you read from a sense of duty, or because for any reason you must, does not commonly make friends with you.

Primitive societies without religion have never been found.

The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.

In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.

There will presently be no room in the world for things; it will be filled up with the advertisements of things.

The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.

Lord, for the erring thoughtNot into evil wrought:Lord, for the wicked willBetrayed and baffled still:For the heart from itself kept,Our thanksgiving accept.

We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.

Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?

Tomorrow I shall be sixty-nine, but I do not seem to care. I did not start the affair, and I have not been consulted about it at any step.

By beauty of course I mean truth, for the one involves the other; it is only the false in art which is ugly, and it is only the ugly that is universal.

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.

What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending.

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.

Does it afflict you to find your books wearing out? I mean literally .. . the mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.

Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.