Thornton Wilder Quotes

Quotes about:

• Without your wounds where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve. Physician, draw back.

  Thornton Wilder

  Children, Heart, Angel

  14 Copy quote

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

  Thornton Wilder

  Inspirational, Life, Inspiring

  Thornton Wilder (1958). “The Cabala ; The Woman of Andros”

  103 Copy quote

• 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

  53 Copy quote

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

  Thornton Wilder

  Funny, Ninety Nine, People

  1954 The Matchmaker, act 1.

  17 Copy quote

• 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

  Memories, Land, Bridges

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

  55 Copy quote

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

  Thornton Wilder

  Writing, Be Good, Impress

  43 Copy quote

• 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

  Art, Secret, Desire

  Thornton Wilder (2009). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Other Novels, 1926-1948”

  43 Copy quote

• 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

  Marriage, Children, Growing Up

  59 Copy quote

• 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

  Happiness, Laughter, Acceptance

  1942 The Skin of Our Teeth, act 1.

  75 Copy quote

• 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

  Love, Life, Fun

  Thornton Wilder (1962). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey”, New York : Limited Editions Club

  38 Copy quote

• 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

  Adventure, Why Not, Life Is

  21 Copy quote

• A purpose is the eternal condition of success.

  Thornton Wilder

  Purpose, Providence, Eternal

  9 Copy quote

• The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.

  Thornton Wilder

  Death, Gratitude, Grief

  63 Copy quote

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

  Thornton Wilder

  World, Razors, Good Things

  Thornton Wilder (1961). “Twayne's United States Authors Series”

  26 Copy quote

• The future is the most expensive luxury in the world.

  Thornton Wilder

  Luxury, World, Expensive

  Thornton Wilder (1966). “Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker”

  6 Copy quote

• Enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Ice Cream, Dessert

  1942 The Skin of Our Teeth, act 1.

  27 Copy quote

• We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being. -stage manager, in the play OUR TOWN

  Thornton Wilder

  Stars, Years, Play

  Thornton Wilder (1957). “Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker”

  62 Copy quote

• When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.

  Thornton Wilder

  Travel, Home, Adventure

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  Inspirational, Success, Doe

  12 Copy quote

• I've never forgotten for long at a time that living is struggle. I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for - whether it's a field, or a home, or a country.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Country, Struggle

  1942 The Skin of Our Teeth, act 3.

  8 Copy quote

• Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions.

  Thornton Wilder

  Unique, Unbroken, Succession

  Thornton Wilder (1966). “Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker”

  10 Copy quote

• Where there is an unknowable, there is a promise.

  Thornton Wilder

  Promise

  Thornton Wilder (2009). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Other Novels, 1926-1948”

  11 Copy quote

• We live in what is, but we find a thousand ways not to face it. Great theater strengthens our faculty to face it.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Way, Faces

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Self, Hatred, Needs

  12 Copy quote

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

  Thornton Wilder

  Love, Passion, Romance

  Time magazine, February 03, 1958.

  21 Copy quote

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