But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. 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

Categorized in : Memories Bridges Land

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

Thornton Wilder

inspiring inspirational life

All that we know about those we have loved and lost is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality. What is essential does not die but clarifies. The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

Thornton Wilder

gratitude grief reality

Art is not only the desire to tell one's secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time.

Thornton Wilder

secret desire art

I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them--it was that promise.

Thornton Wilder

growing-up marriage children

Faith is a never-ending pool of clarity, reaching far beyond the margins of consciousness. We all know more than we know we know.

Thornton Wilder

clarity pool consciousness

If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good

Thornton Wilder

impress be-good writing

Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

Thornton Wilder

ninety-nine funny people

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

Thornton Wilder

laughter acceptance happiness

Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it -- every, every minute?

Thornton Wilder

realize-life realizing earth

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

fun love life

Life is a fatal adventure. It can only have one end. So why not make it as far-ranging and free as possible.

Thornton Wilder

why-not life-is adventure

[Camila] was quite incapable of establishing any harmony between the claims of her art, of her appetites, or her dreams, and of her crowded daily routine. Each of these was a world in itself.

Thornton Wilder

routine dream art

The stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be clothed in words.

Thornton Wilder

waiting stuff world

Every good thing in the world stands on the razor-edge of danger.

Thornton Wilder

razors good-things world

A play visibly represents pure existing.

Thornton Wilder

pure play

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.

Thornton Wilder

hope faith fear

EMILY: "Does anyone ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?" STAGE MANAGER: "No. Saints and poets maybe...they do some.

Thornton Wilder

realize-life saint doe

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

events theatre believe

There is no need for me to curse you -the murderer survives the victim only to learn that it was himself that he longed to be rid of. Hatred is self-hatred.

Thornton Wilder

hatred self needs

Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value.

Thornton Wilder

romance passion love