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I wonder why we hate the past so.

William Dean Howells

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William Dean Howells
Age: 83 †
Born: 1837
Born: March 1
Died: 1920
Died: May 11
Author
Biographer
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Playwright
Science Fiction Writer
Belmont County
Ohio
William Howells
Wonder
Hate
History
Past

More quotes by William Dean Howells

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Lord, for the erring thought Not unto evil wrought: Lord, for the wicked will Betrayed, and baffled still: For the heart from itself kept, Our thanksgiving accept. For ignorant hopes that were Broken to our blind prayer: For pain, death, sorrow, sent Unto our chastisement: For all loss of seeming good, Quicken our gratitude.
William Dean Howells
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Primitive societies without religion have never been found.
William Dean Howells
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Why art thou but a nest of gloom While the bobolinks are singing?
William Dean Howells
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A friend knows how to allow for mere quantity in your talk, and only replies to the quality.
William Dean Howells
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The conqueror is regarded with awe the wise man commands our respect but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.
William Dean Howells
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What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending.
William Dean Howells
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We are creatures of the moment we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.
William Dean Howells
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The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
William Dean Howells
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The book which you read from a sense of duty, or because for any reason you must, does not commonly make friends with you.
William Dean Howells
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If ever the public was betrayed by its press, it's ours.
William Dean Howells
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Lord, for the erring thoughtNot into evil wrought:Lord, for the wicked willBetrayed and baffled still:For the heart from itself kept,Our thanksgiving accept.
William Dean Howells
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How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?
William Dean Howells
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Do not trouble yourselves about standards or ideals but try to be faithful and natural: remember that there is no greatness, no beauty, which does not come from truth to your own knowledge of things and keep on working, even if your work is not long remembered.
William Dean Howells
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A man never sees all that his mother has been to him until it's too late to let her know that he sees it.
William Dean Howells
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See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusionSee how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious.
William Dean Howells
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He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.
William Dean Howells
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The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested.
William Dean Howells
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The wars come and go in blood and tears but whether they are bad wars, or what are comically called good wars, they are of one effect in death and sorrow.
William Dean Howells
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You'll find as you grow older that you weren't born such a great while ago after all. The time shortens up.
William Dean Howells
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n artistic atmosphere does not create artists a literary atmosphere does not create literators poets and painters spring up where there was never a verse made or a picture seen. This suggests that God is no more idle now than He was at the beginning, but that He is still and forever shaping the human chaos into the instruments and means of beauty.
William Dean Howells