I believe in the compelling power of love. I do not understand it. I believe it to be the most fragrant blossom of all this thorny existence. Theodore Dreiser More Quotes by Theodore Dreiser More Quotes From Theodore Dreiser Words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean. Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings and purposes. Theodore Dreiser shadow feelings mean All forms of dogmatic religion should go. The world did without them in the past and can do so again. Theodore Dreiser atheism past world If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circustance. Theodore Dreiser atheist soul men If I were personally to define religion, I would say that it is a bandage that man has invented to protect a soul made bloody by circumstances. All forms of dogmatic religion should go. The world did without them in the past and can do so again. I cite the great civilizations of China and India. Theodore Dreiser men civilization past And then he sank back and tried, as usual, not to think. He must succeed. That's what the world was made for. That's what he was made for. That was what he would have to do. Theodore Dreiser usual world thinking Depend on it, that from every condition of distress or evil there is a great reaction, and the greater the evil or distress, the greater the reaction. If we do not get a reaction quick, we will get it long when it does come. Theodore Dreiser wickedness reactions evil It isn't myself that's important in this transaction apparently; the individual doesn't count much in the situation...all of us are more or less pawns. We're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over which we have no control. Theodore Dreiser individual pawns important The strong man wants to be allowed to DO; the little man wants to stop him. Theodore Dreiser strong business men We are to have no pictures which the puritan and the narrow, animated by an obsolete dogma, cannot approve of. We are to have no theaters no motion pictures, no books, no public exhibitions of any kind, no speech even which will anyway contravene his limited view of life. Theodore Dreiser exhibitions views book Your writer, your scientist, your chief official, all have lost the power to revive the early illusion concerning fame and high place. Their beauty and delight is like the mirage in the heavens, only plain to the eye outside; within is nothing. Theodore Dreiser eye power heaven If we are to extract any joy out of our span, we must think and plan and make things better not only for ourselves but for others, since joy for ourselves depends upon our joy in others and theirs in us. Theodore Dreiser plans joy thinking We who feel that justice is not being done have but one thing to do: that is fight, by argument, by example, by insistence on fair play wherever we have the power to do so. The rest is in the hands of the Lord, or nature, which swings, apparently, from one extreme to another. Theodore Dreiser swings fighting hands The mystery of life--its inexplicability, beauty, cruelty, tenderness, folly . . . has occupied the greater part of my waking thoughts; and in reverence or rage or irony, as the moment or situation might dictate, I have pondered and even demanded of cosmic energy to know Why. Theodore Dreiser waking energy might How dismal is progress without publicity. Theodore Dreiser publicity progress To the untraveled, territory other than their own familiar heath is invariably fascinating. Next to love it is the one thing that solaces and delights. Theodore Dreiser delight territory next Theodore Dreiser Should ought to write nicer. Theodore Dreiser ought should writing Shakespeare, I come! Theodore Dreiser last-words Innate sensuousness rarely has any desire for accuracy, no desire for precise information. It basks in sunshine, bathes in color, dwells in a sense of the impressive and the gorgeous, and rests there. Accuracy is not necessary except in the case of aggressive, acquisitive natures, when it manifests itself in a desire to seize. True controlling sensuousness cannot be manifested in the most active dispositions, nor again in the most accurate. Theodore Dreiser sunshine color desire Nature, machine-like, works definitely and heartlessly, if in the main beautifully. Hence, if we, as individuals, do not make this dream of a god or what he stands for us real in our thoughts and deeds, then he is not real or true. Theodore Dreiser nature real dream I have seen youths bright eyed and fair groping after bubbles in rapture, and conceiving them diamonds and the glitter of fine jewels, until their hand closed over a something that was not to be felt nor longer seen, mere colored air. Theodore Dreiser air success hands
