Time changes all things and cultivates even in herself an appreciation of irony, and, therefore, why shouldn't I have changed a trifle? James Branch Cabell More Quotes by James Branch Cabell More Quotes From James Branch Cabell American literature was enriched with Men Who Loved Allison .... Of the actual and eventual worth of this romance I cannot pretend to be an unprejudiced judge. The tale seems to me one of those many books which have profited, very dubiously indeed, by having obtained, in one way of another, the repute of being indecent. James Branch Cabell judging men book Every notion that any man, dead, living, or unborn, might form as to the universe will necessarily prove wrong James Branch Cabell form might men The realization that life is absurdand cannot be an end, but only abeginning. This is a truth nearly allgreat minds have taken as their starting point. James Branch Cabell taken mind life A man of genuine literary genius, since he possesses a temperament whose susceptibilities are of wider area than those of any other, is inevitably of all people the one most variously affected by his surroundings. And it is he, in consequence, who of all people most faithfully and compactly exhibits the impress of his times and his times' tendencies, not merely in his writings where it conceivably might be just predetermined affectation but in his personality. James Branch Cabell writing men people For although this was a very heroic war, with a parade of every sort of high moral principle, and with the most sonorous language employed upon both sides, it somehow failed to bring about either the reformation or the ruin of humankind: and after the conclusion of the murdering and general breakage, the world went on pretty much as it has done after all other wars, with a vague notion that a deal of time and effort had been unprofitably invested, and a conviction that it would be inglorious to say so. James Branch Cabell ruins effort war For all men have but a little while to live and none knows his fate thereafter. So that a man possesses nothing certainly save a brief loan of his body: and yet the body of man is capable of much curious pleasure. James Branch Cabell fate body men Literature is a vast bazaar where customers come to purchase everything except mirrors. James Branch Cabell bazaars mirrors literature I was born, I think, with the desire to make beautiful books — brave books that would preserve the glories of the Dream untarnished, and would re-create them for battered people, and re-awaken joy and magnanimity. James Branch Cabell dream beautiful book No person of quality ever remembers social restrictions save when considering how most piquantly to break them. James Branch Cabell quality break remember There is no escaping, at times, the gloomy suspicion that fiddling with pens and ink is, after all, no fit employment for a grown man. James Branch Cabell escaping ink men I have read that the secret of gallantry is to accept the pleasures of life leisurely, and its inconveniences with a shrug; as well as that, among other requisites, the gallant person will always consider the world with a smile of toleration, and his own doings with a smile of honest amusement, and Heaven with a smile which is not distrustful — being thoroughly persuaded that God is kindlier than the genteel would regard as rational. James Branch Cabell secret heaven world People marry through a variety of other reasons, and with varying results: but to marry for love is to invite inevitable tragedy. James Branch Cabell marriage love-is people I ask of literature precisely those things of which I feel the lack in my own life. James Branch Cabell my-own literature feels The only way of rendering life endurable is to drink as much wine as one can come by. James Branch Cabell drink wine way Everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken atwill from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. James Branch Cabell useless tasks life A manpossessesnothing certainlysavea brief loanof his own body. James Branch Cabell body Some few there must be in every age and every land of whom life claims nothing very insistently save that they write perfectly of beautiful happenings. James Branch Cabell land writing beautiful Man alone of animals plays the ape to his dreams . James Branch Cabell dream animal men I fear You and, yes, I love You: and yet I cannot believe. Why could You not let me believe, where so many believed? Or else, why could You not let me deride, as the remainder derided so noisily? O God, why could You not let me have faith? for You gave me no faith in anything, not even in nothingness. It was not fair. James Branch Cabell have-faith love-you believe I take it that I must be the eternal playfellow of time. For piety and common-sense and death are rightfully time's toys; and it is with these three that I divert myself. James Branch Cabell common-sense three time
