Quotes from Sherwood Anderson

Many people must live and die alone, even in Winesburg.

Their bodies were different as were the color of their eyes, the length of their noses and the circumstances of their existence, but something inside them meant the same thing, wanted the same release, would have left the same impression on the memory of an onlooker.

If people did not want their stories told, it would be better for them to keep away from me.

Friends you have, people you love, die and are born again.

I am a lover and have not found my thing to love. That is a big point if you know enough to realize what I mean. It makes my destruction inevitable, you see. There are few who understand that.

What is to be got at to make the air sweet, the ground good under the feet, can only be got at by failure, trial, again and again and again failure.

Interest in the lives of others, the high evaluation of these lives, what are they but the overflow of the interest a man finds in himself, the value he attributes to his own being?

Work accomplished means little. It is in the past. What we all want is the glorious and living present.

The lives of people are like young trees in a forest. They are being choked by climbing vines. The vines are old thoughts and beliefs planted by dead men.

What's wrong with this egotism? If a man doesn't delight in himself and the force in him and feel that he and it are wonders, how is all life to become important to him?

In the country sometimes I go about looking at horses and cattle. They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them.

It might be that women who have beennurses should not marry physicians. They have too much respect for physicians, are taughtto have too much respect

I go about looking at horses and cattle. They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them.

That in the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful.

Next to occupation is the building up of good taste. That is difficult, slow work. Few achieve it. It means all the difference in the world in the end.

The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.

It is no use. I find it impossible to work with security staring me in the face.

You can make a killing as a playwright in America, but you can't make a living.

If a man doesn't delight in himself and the force in him and feel that he and it are wonders how is all life to become important to him?

The whole object of education is...to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works.

Father was made for romance. For him there was no such thing as a fact.

It may be life is only worthwhile at moments. Perhaps that is all we ought to expect

I am a lover and have not found my thing to love