A dramatist is one who from his earliest years has found that sheer gazing at the shocks and counter-shocks among people is quite sufficiently engrossing without having to encase it in comment. Thornton Wilder More Quotes by Thornton Wilder More Quotes From Thornton Wilder But there comes a time in everybody's life when he must decide whether he'll live among human beings or nota fool among fools or a fool alone. Thornton Wilder fool humans time Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Thornton Wilder our-town realize-life realizing Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to. Thornton Wilder want country travel Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new-ironed dresses and hot baths...and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Thornton Wilder sunflower coffee sleep You swore you loved me, and laughed and warned me that you would not love me forever. I did not hear you. You were speaking in a language I did not understand. Never, never, I can conceive of a love which is able to foresee its own termination. Love is its own eternity. Love is in every moment of its being: all time. It is the only glimpse we are permitted of what eternity is. So I did not hear you. The words were nonsense. Thornton Wilder age forever love The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose. Thornton Wilder freedom-to-choose awareness decision The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude. Thornton Wilder gratitude grief death There is no drunkenness equal to that of remembering whispered words in the night. Thornton Wilder equal remember night Now he discovered that secret from which one never quite recovers, that even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other. There may be two equally good, equally gifted, equally beautiful, but theremay never be two that love one another equally well. Thornton Wilder perfect beautiful two People are meant to go through life two by two. ’Tain’t natural to be lonesome. Thornton Wilder our-town two people I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me. Thornton Wilder reading writing book There's nothing like mixing with women to bring out all the foolishness in a man of sense. Thornton Wilder men-and-women mixing men Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success. Thornton Wilder doe success inspirational Literature is the orchestration of platitudes. Thornton Wilder orchestration platitudes literature It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves. Thornton Wilder eye time moving The condition of leadership adds new degrees of solitariness to the basic solitude of mankind. Every order that we issue increases the extent to which we are alone, and every show of deference which is extended to us separates us from our fellows. Thornton Wilder issues leadership order Those who are silent, self-effacing and attentive become the recipients of confidences. Thornton Wilder silent self quiet 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 choices mind may The future is the most expensive luxury in the world. Thornton Wilder luxury expensive world How terrifying and glorious the role of man if, indeed, without guidance and without consolation he must create from his own vitals the meaning for his existence and write the rules whereby he lives. Thornton Wilder roles writing men
