Quotes from Theodore Dreiser

One of his self–imposed tasks was to go about the house after Lester, or the servants, turning out the gas–jets or electric–light bulbs which might accidentally have been left burning. That was a sinful extravagance.

He would not wear the social shackles if it were possible to satisfy the needs of his heart and nature and still remain free and unfettered.

Such extravagance! Gerhardt complained to Jennie. Such waste! No good can come of anything like that, It will mean want one of these days.

No, he must possess her if he could — to-day, quickly, as soon as possible. It was in that frame of mind that he returned to Mrs. Bracebridge's home from his visit to Lorrie Street.

Marriage was not only impossible but unnecessary. He had only to say "Come" and she must obey; it was her destiny.

He liked it, the idea of self-duplication. It was almost acquisitive, this thought.

The bankers got the free use of the money a part of the time, the brokers another part: the officials made money, and the brokers received a fat commission.

Peace, peace. So shall it soon be with all of us. It was a dream. It is. I am. You are. And shall we grieve over or hark back to dreams? (from My Brother Paul)

For what am I now?' 'But a moment since, I was whole and one who could find delight in all things that were given me to do; but now I am as one who is lost and knows not his way.

Life's little ironies are not always manifest. We hear distant rumbling sounds of its tragedies, but rarely are we permitted to witness the reality. (from W.L.S.)

Transplantation is not always successful in the matter of flowers or maidens.

Sometimes a single life will clearly and effectively illustrate a period. (from Vanity, Vanity Saith the Preacher)

Men are still led by instinct before they are regulated by knowledge

We are weighed upon by too many things. It is as if the wisdom of the infinite were struggling to beat itself into finite and cup-big minds.

Yet because of the ignorance and stupidity of so many of those about him, he was able to consider himself at least fairly learned.

Days were going—going. But life—life—how was one to do without that—the beauty of the days— of the sun and rain—of work love, energy, desire. Why say to him so constantly now did to resolve all his care in divine mercy and think only of God, when now, now, was all?

She only basked in the warmth of his feeling, which was as a grateful blaze to one who is cold.

know too well that I am but taking to my arms a variable creature like myself, whose wishes are apt to become insistent and burdensome in proportion to the decrease of her beauty and interest?" These are the men, who, unwilling to risk the manifold contingencies of an authorized connection, are led to consider the advantages of a less-binding union, a temporary companionship. They seek to seize the happiness of life without paying the cost of their indulgence.

It was that halcyon hour when the Angelus falls like a benediction upon the waning day. Far off the notes were sounding gently, and nature, now that she listened, seemed to have paused also. A scarlet–breasted robin was hopping in short spaces upon the grass before her. A humming bee hummed, a cow–bell tinkled, while some suspicious cracklings told of a secretly reconnoitering squirrel.

The true meaning of money yet remains to be popularly explained and comprehended. When each individual realises for himself that this thing primarily stands for and should only be accepted as a moral due—that it should be paid out as honestly stored energy, and not as a usurped privilege—many of our social, religious, and political troubles will have permanently passed.

Clyde was as vain and proud as he was poor

A real flame of love is a subtle thing. It burns as a will–o'–the–wisp, dancing onward to fairylands of delight. It roars as a furnace. Too often jealousy is the quality upon which it feeds.

Life is a God-damned, stinking, treacherous game and nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand are bastards.

The death house in this particular prison was one of those crass erections and maintenances of human insensitiveness and stupidity principally for which no one primarily was really responsible.