Quotes from Stephen Crane

The red sun was pasted in the sky like a wafer.

The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting. As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors.

Should the wide world roll awayLeaving black terrorLimitless night,Nor God, nor man, nor place to standWould be to me essentialIf thou and thy white arms were thereAnd the fall to doom a long way.

He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.

He had fought like a pagan who defends his religion.

Think as I think said the man, or you are abominable. You are a toad. And after I had thought on it, I said I will then, be a toad.

A Man Said to the Universe A man said to the universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation.

In the Desert In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said, "Is it good, friend?" "It is bitter—bitter," he answered; "But I like it "Because it is bitter, "And because it is my heart.

When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.

It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.

If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?

Tell her this And more,— That the king of the seas Weeps too, old, helpless man. The bustling fates Heap his hands with corpses Until he stands like a child With surplus of toys.

Think as I think," said a man, "or you are abominably wicked; you are a toad." And after I thought of it, I said, "I will, then, be a toad.

When the suicide arrived at the sky, the people there asked him: "Why?" He replied: "Because no one admired me.

Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.

Two or three angels Came near to the earth. They saw a fat church. Little black streams of people Came and went in continually. And the angels were puzzled To know why the people went thus, And why they stayed so long within.

A learned man came to me once. He said, "I know the way, -- come." And I was overjoyed at this. Together we hastened. Soon, too soon, were we Where my eyes were useless, And I knew not the ways of my feet. I clung to the hand of my friend; But at last he cried, "I am lost.

Half of tradition is a lie.

The man had arrived at that stage of drunkenness where affection is felt for the universe.

When the prophet, a complacent fat man, Arrived at the mountain-top He cried: "Woe to my knowledge! I intended to see good white lands And bad black lands— But the scene is grey.

A MAN FEARED A man feared that he might find an assassin; Another that he might find a victim. One was more wise than the other.

Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to be the final phenomenon of nature.

XXIV I saw a man pursuing the horizon; Round and round they sped. I was disturbed at this; I accosted the man. "It is futile," I said, "You can never-" "You lie" he cried And ran on.

He vaguely desired to walk around and around the body and stare; the impulse of the living to try to read in dead eyes the answer to the Question.