William Faulkner Quotes - Page 2

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• So, never be afraid. Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed. If you, not just you in this room tonight, but in all the thousands of other rooms like this one about the world today and tomorrow and next week, will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.

  William Faulkner

  Honesty, Lying, Men

  225 Copy quote

• To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Equality, Alaska

  William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.101, Modern Library

  163 Copy quote

• At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that the young man must possess or teach himself, training himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance-that is to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is to be-curiosity-to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does, and if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got it or not.

  William Faulkner

  Writing, Thinking, Men

  144 Copy quote

• I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail...because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Believe, Sacrifice

  120 Copy quote

• The ideal woman which is in every man's mind is evoked by a word or phrase or the shape of her wrist, her hand. The most beautiful description of a woman is by understatement. Remember, all Tolstoy ever said to describe Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat. Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.

  William Faulkner

  Beautiful, Women, Cat

  Quoted in Reader's Digest, Mar. 1973

  87 Copy quote

• There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't.

  William Faulkner

  Funny, Humorous, Drinking

  In James M. Webb and A. Wigfall Green William Faulkner of Oxford (1965) p. 110

  193 Copy quote

• Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.

  William Faulkner

  Memories, Believe, August

  William Faulkner (1972). “Light in August”, Vintage

  165 Copy quote

• A mule will labor ten years willingly and patiently for you, for the privilege of kicking you once.

  William Faulkner

  Patience, Years, Mules

  William Faulkner (2011). “Flags in the Dust: The complete text of Faulkner's third novel, which appeared in a cut version as Sartoris”, p.290, Vintage

  111 Copy quote

• The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.

  William Faulkner

  Life, Art, Moving

  1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

  62 Copy quote

• Truth; that long clean clear simple undeniable unchallengeable straight and shining line, on one side of which black is black and on the other white is white, has now become an angle, a point of view.

  William Faulkner

  Truth, Honesty, Simple

  65 Copy quote

• Civilization begins with distillation

  William Faulkner

  Hipster, Civilization, Alcohol

  66 Copy quote

• The past is never dead. It's not even past.

  William Faulkner

  Wisdom, Past, Heredity And Environment

  Requiem for a Nun act 1 (1951)

  97 Copy quote

• No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vices of his ancestors.

  William Faulkner

  Grief, Men, Vices

  "Intruder in the Dust".

  32 Copy quote

• It's all now you see: tomorrow began yesterday and yesterday won't be over until tomorrow.

  William Faulkner

  Yesterday, Tomorrow

  45 Copy quote

• People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.

  William Faulkner

  Strength, Mean, Artist

  41 Copy quote

• Wonder. Go on and wonder.

  William Faulkner

  Inspiration, Goes On, Wonder

  William Faulkner (2011). “FAULKNER READER”, p.79, Modern Library

  50 Copy quote

• No battle is ever won ... victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

  William Faulkner

  Victory, Battle, Fool

  "The Sound and the Fury". Third International Edition,

  36 Copy quote

• Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.

  William Faulkner

  Dream, Positive Thinking, Excellence

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  38 Copy quote

• Pouring out liquor is like burning books.

  William Faulkner

  Book, Burning, Pouring

  61 Copy quote

• No one is without Christianity, if we agree on what we mean by that word. It is every individual's individual code of behavior by means of which he makes himself a better human being than his nature wants to be, if he followed his nature only. Whatever its symbol - cross or crescent or whatever - that symbol is man's reminder of his duty inside the human race.

  William Faulkner

  Mean, Men, Race

  "William Faulkner, The Art of Fiction No. 12". Interview with Jean Stein, www.theparisreview.org. 1956.

  100 Copy quote

• We have to start teaching ourselves not to be afraid.

  William Faulkner

  Fear, Teaching, Learning

  58 Copy quote

• The best fiction is far more true than any journalism.

  William Faulkner

  Fiction, Journalism, Newspapers

  41 Copy quote

• She was bored. She loved, had capacity to love, for love, to give and accept love. Only she tried twice and failed twice to find somebody not just strong enough to deserve it, earn it, match it, but even brave enough to accept it.

  William Faulkner

  Strong, Capacity To Love, Giving

  William Faulkner (1999). “Novels, 1957-1962”

  165 Copy quote

• Hemingway shot himself. I don't like a man that takes the short way home.

  William Faulkner

  Suicide, Home, Men

  11 Copy quote

• The salvation of the world is in man's suffering.

  William Faulkner

  Men, World Suffering, Salvation

  William Faulkner (1994). “Novels 1942-1954”

  59 Copy quote

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