James Branch Cabell Quotes

Quotes about:

• Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.

  James Branch Cabell

  Men, Uprising, Poetry

  1919 Jurgen.

  49 Copy quote

• No lady is ever a gentleman.

  James Branch Cabell

  Gentleman

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• People never want to be told anything they do not believe already.

  James Branch Cabell

  Believe, People, Want

  James Branch Cabell (2001). “The Cream of the Jest”, p.72, Wildside Press LLC

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• While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.

  James Branch Cabell

  Important, Footprint, Sand

  James Branch Cabell (2005). “Beyond Life”, p.173, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The optimist sees a light at the end of the tunnel, the realist sees a train entering the tunnel, the pessimist sees a train speeding at him, hell for leather, and the machinist sees three idiots sitting on the rail track. "The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; the pessimist fears this is true."

  James Branch Cabell

  Tunnels, Light, Track

  The Silver Stallion bk. 4, ch. 26 (1926) See Leibniz 3; Voltaire 7; Voltaire 8

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• There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.

  James Branch Cabell

  Memories, History, Temptation

  James Branch Cabell (2013). “The Essential James Branch Cabell Collection”, eBookIt.com

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• 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

  Life, Tasks, Useless

  James Branch Cabell (1930). “The Cream of the Jest: The Lineage of Lichfield, Two Comedies of Evasion”

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• The only way of rendering life endurable is to drink as much wine as one can come by.

  James Branch Cabell

  Wine, Way, Drink

  James Branch Cabell (2005). “Beyond Life”, p.107, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

• Why is the King of Hearts the only one that hasn't a moustache?

  James Branch Cabell

  Kings, Heart, Moustache

  James Branch Cabell (2013). “The Essential James Branch Cabell Collection”, eBookIt.com

  32 Copy quote

• A book , once it is printed and published, becomes individual. It is by its publication as decisively severed from its author as in parturition a child is cut off from its parent. The book "means" thereafter, perforce, both grammatically and actually, whatever meaning this or that reader gets out of it.

  James Branch Cabell

  Children, Book, Mean

  James Branch Cabell (1930). “The Works of James Branch Cabell: Towsend of Lichfield”

  14 Copy quote

• Literature is a vast bazaar where customers come to purchase everything except mirrors.

  James Branch Cabell

  Mirrors, Bazaars, Literature

  James Branch Cabell (2013). “The Essential James Branch Cabell Collection”, p.176, eBookIt.com

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• 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

  War, Effort, Ruins

  James Branch Cabell (2017). “Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances”, p.155, Wildside Press LLC

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• Creeds matter very little... The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. So I elect for neither label.

  James Branch Cabell

  Optimistic, Optimism, Labels

  The Silver Stallion bk. 4, ch. 26 (1926) See Leibniz 3; Voltaire 7; Voltaire 8

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• Patriotism is the religion of hell.

  James Branch Cabell

  Patriotism, Religion, Hell

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• Good and evil keep very exact accounts... and the face of every man is their ledger.

  James Branch Cabell

  Men, Evil, Faces

  James Branch Cabell (2012). “Jurgen”, p.27, Courier Corporation

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• What is man that his welfare be considered? An ape who chatters of kinship with the archangels while he very filthily digs for groundnuts. And yet I perceive that this same man is a maimed God. He is condemned under penalty to measure eternity with an hourglass and infinity with a yardstick and what is more, he very nearly does it.

  James Branch Cabell

  Men, Doe, Yardsticks

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• Love, I take it, must look toward something not quite accessible, something not quite understood.

  James Branch Cabell

  Life, Looks, Understood

  James Branch Cabell (2001). “The Cream of the Jest”, p.9, Wildside Press LLC

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• The touch of time does more than the club of Hercules.

  James Branch Cabell

  Time, Doe, Clubs

  James Branch Cabell (2003). “The Witch-Woman: A Trilogy About Her”, p.99, Wildside Press LLC

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• Man alone of animals plays the ape to his dreams .

  James Branch Cabell

  Dream, Animal, Men

  James Branch Cabell (2009). “The Silver Stallion”, p.226, Wildside Press LLC

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• 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

  Life, Taken, Mind

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• 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, Men, Body

  James Branch Cabell (2012). “Jurgen”, p.124, Courier Corporation

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• What am I that I am called upon to have prejudices concerning the universe?

  James Branch Cabell

  Prejudice, Universe

  James Branch Cabell (2015). “Domnei”, p.51, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• 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

  "The Cream of the Jest".

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• I fight against the gluttony of time with so many very amusing weapons with gestures and with three attitudes and with charming phrases; with tears and with tinsel, and with sugar-coated pills, and with platitudes slightly regilded. Yes, and I fight him also with little mirrors wherein gleam confusedly the corruptions of lust, and ruddy loyalty, and a bit of moonshine, and the pure diamond of the heart's desire, and the opal cloudings of human compromise: but, above all, I fight that ravening dotard with the strength of my own folly.

  James Branch Cabell

  Loyalty, Attitude, Heart

  James Branch Cabell (1948). “The Witch-woman: A Trilogy about Her”, Amereon Limited

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• I am Manuel. I have lived in the loneliness which is common to all men, but the difference is that I have known it. Now it is necessary for me, as it is necessary for all men, to die in this same loneliness, and I know that there is no help for it.

  James Branch Cabell

  Loneliness, Men, Differences

  James Branch Cabell (2008). “Between Dawn and Sunrise”, p.72, Wildside Press LLC

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