Thornton Wilder Quotes


The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose. Thornton Wilder Choice 120
When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home. Thornton Wilder Home 96
Money is like manure its not worth a thing unless its spread around encouraging young things to grow. Thornton Wilder Future 95
Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests. Thornton Wilder Children 91
For what human ill does dawn not seem to be alternative? Thornton Wilder Choice 88
Favors cease to be favors when there are conditions attached to them. Thornton Wilder Generosity 85
Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech. Thornton Wilder Conversation 83
Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure. Thornton Wilder Facts 79
People are meant to go through life two by two. Taint natural to be lonesome. Thornton Wilder Marriage 77
Emily Do any human beings ever realise life while they live itevery every minute Stage Manager No. The saints and poets maybethey do some. Thornton Wilder Play 77
Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value. Thornton Wilder Love 77
I have inherited this burden of superstition and nonsense. I govern innumerable men but must acknowledge that I am governed by birds and thunderclaps Thornton Wilder Government 76
I rose by sheer military ability to the rank of corporal. Thornton Wilder Military 76
A play visibly represents pure existing. Thornton Wilder PlayGames 76
Marriage is a bribe to make the housekeeper think she's a householder. Thornton Wilder Marriage 73
I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts. Thornton Wilder Children 72
We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind. Thornton Wilder Death 72
Pride, avarice, and envy are in every home. Thornton Wilder Home 68
Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it-every, every minute? Thornton Wilder Life 68
I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for... Thornton Wilder Goodness 67
It is only dogs that never bite their masters. Thornton Wilder Human nature 66
Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise. Thornton Wilder Promises 63
I not only bow to the inevitable, I am fortified by it. Thornton Wilder Uncategorized 63
Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday. Thornton Wilder Pet 62
It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness. Thornton Wilder beauty 62
I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island. Thornton Wilder Poetry 61
Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous. Thornton Wilder Hope 61
Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day. Thornton Wilder Work 58
Either we live by accident and die by accident or we live by plan and die by plan. Thornton Wilder Existence 53
Literature is the orchestration of platitudes. Thornton Wilder Books 53
The best part of married life is the fights. The rests is merely so. Thornton Wilder Marriage 52
The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way. Thornton Wilder Authors 51
For what human ill does not dawn seem to be an alleviation? Thornton Wilder Dawn 51
Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value. Thornton Wilder Love 51
The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude. Thornton Wilder Gratitude 48
Love as education is one of the great powers of the world but it hangs in a delicate suspension it achieves its harmony as seldom as does love by the senses. Frustrated it creates even greater havoc for like all love it is a madness. Thornton Wilder Education 46
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love. Thornton Wilder Love 46
Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous. Thornton Wilder Faith 46
I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts. Thornton Wilder Youth 45
The comic spirit is given to us in order that we may analyze, weigh, and clarify things in us which nettle us, or which we are outgrowing, or trying to reshape. Thornton Wilder Comedy 45
When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery He wants him to know all that being alive can bring. That is his best gift. There is no happiness save in understanding the whole. Thornton Wilder Happy 43
Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want. Thornton Wilder Children 42
A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it. Thornton Wilder Theater 42
The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose. Thornton Wilder Decisions 41
We live in what is, but we find 1,000 ways not to face it. Great theatre strengthens our faculty to face it. Thornton Wilder Theater 40
The unencumbered stage encourages the truth operative in everyone. The less seen, the more heard. The eye is the enemy of the ear in real drama. Thornton Wilder Theater 39
Never support two weaknesses at the same time. Its your combination sinners your lecherous liars and your miserly drunkards who dishonor the vices and bring them into bad repute. Thornton Wilder Virtue 39
There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning. Thornton Wilder Discovery 39
The knowledge that she would never be loved in return acted upon her ideas as a tide acts upon cliffs. Thornton Wilder Unrequited love 38
Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they dont talk in English and dont even want to. Thornton Wilder Travel 37

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