A sensational event was changing from the brown suit to the gray the contents of his pockets. He was earnest about these objects. They were of eternal importance, like baseball or the Republican Party. Sinclair Lewis More Quotes by Sinclair Lewis More Quotes From Sinclair Lewis There are dozens of young poets and fictioneers most of them a little insane in the tradition of James Joyce, who, however insane they may be, have refused to be genteel and traditional and dull. Sinclair Lewis dozen insane dull Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile. Sinclair Lewis polite safe writing He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons. Sinclair Lewis misanthropy persons people The Maker of the universe with stars a hundred thousand light-years apart was interested, furious, and very personal about it if a small boy played baseball on Sunday afternoon. Sinclair Lewis sunday stars baseball Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously. Sinclair Lewis conventional criticize thinking Unhappy women are given to protecting their sensitiveness by cynical gossip, by whining, by high-church and new-thought religions, or by a fog of vagueness. Sinclair Lewis gossip fog cynical There are two insults which no human being will endure: The assertion that he hasn't a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble. Sinclair Lewis sense-of-humor insult two Indians, of course, have no "theology," and indeed no word for the system of credulity in which the white priests arrange for God, who must be entirely bewildered by it, a series of excuses for his failures. Sinclair Lewis excuse priests white Why is it that traveling Americans are always so dreadful? Sinclair Lewis He who has seen one cathedral ten times has seen something; he who has seen ten cathedrals once has seen but little; and he who has spent half an hour in each of a hundred cathedrals has seen nothing at all. Sinclair Lewis half journey travel It might be the doing of Satan, in whom Aaron anxiously believed with all of his being except, perhaps, his mind. Sinclair Lewis satan mind might Is it possible that nobody has ever known that there never has been a completely civilized man, and won't be for another thousand years? Sinclair Lewis thousand men years The cocktail filled him with a whirling exhilaration behind which he was aware of devastating desires—to rush places in fast motors, to kiss girls, to sing, to be witty. ... He perceived that he had gifts of profligacy which had been neglected. —chapter 8 Sinclair Lewis kissing girl witty If there is anything worse than the aching tedium of staring out of car windows, it is the irritation of getting tickets, packing, finding trains, lying in bouncing berths, washing without water, digging out passports, and fighting through customs. To live in Carlsbad is seemly and to loaf at San Remo healing to the soul, but to get from Carlsbad to San Remo is of the devil. Sinclair Lewis fighting healing lying When you think that most of us are doomed by divine grace to roast in hell, to say nothing of mortgages and hail and bad crops and extravagant womenfolks, 'tain't any laughing matter! Sinclair Lewis grace laughing thinking The one thing that can be more disconcerting than intelligent hatred is demanding love. Sinclair Lewis one-thing intelligent hatred Don't be a writer. Writing is an escape from something. You be a scientist. Sinclair Lewis scientist writing I was brought up to believe that the Christian God wasn't a scared and compromising public servant, but the creator of the whole merciless truth, and I reckon that training spoiled me - I actually took my teachers seriously! Sinclair Lewis christian teacher believe I have for myself no conceivable complaint to make, and yet for American literature in general, and its standing in a country where industrialism and finance and science flourish and the only arts that are vital and respected are architecture and the film, I have a considerable complaint. Sinclair Lewis literature country art There are so many people in the world who are eager to do for you things that you do not wish done, provided only that you will do for them things that you don't wish to do. Sinclair Lewis done wish people
