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Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests.

Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder
Age: 78 †
Born: 1897
Born: April 17
Died: 1975
Died: December 7
Novelist
Playwright
Screenwriter
Madison
Wisconsin
Thornton Niven Wilder
Terrifying
Reserves
Scary
Upon
Nature
Right
Children
Jests
Inflict

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I was an old man when I was 12 and now I am an old man, AND IT'S SPLENDID!
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The stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be clothed in words.
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There is no drunkenness equal to that of remembering whispered words in the night.
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The best part of married life is the fights. The rest is merely so-so.
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A good writer preserves an air of freedom in his prose, so that the reader won't know how a story will end - even if he's reading a history book.
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Many plays - certainly mine - are like blank checks. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.
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A play visibly represents pure existing.
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Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to.
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There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.
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Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want.
Thornton Wilder
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The planting of trees is the least self-centered of all that we can do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.
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Heaven's my destination.
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That's the advantage of having lived sixty-five years. You don't feel the need to be impatient any longer.
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I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts.
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The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.
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I have inherited this burden of superstition and nonsense. I govern innumerable men but must acknowledge that I am governed by birds and thunderclaps
Thornton Wilder
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A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference. It pardons shortcomings, it consoles failure.
Thornton Wilder
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Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.
Thornton Wilder
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Favors cease to be favors when there are conditions attached to them.
Thornton Wilder
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Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations.
Thornton Wilder