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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
History
Past
Wonder
Hate

More quotes by William Dean Howells

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In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.
William Dean Howells
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People naturally despise a dependant.
William Dean Howells
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I know, indeed, of nothing more subtly satisfying and cheering than a knowledge of the real good will and appreciation of others. Such happiness does not come with money, nor does it flow from fine physical state. It cannot be brought. But it is the keenest joy, after all and the toiler's truest and best reward.
William Dean Howells
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The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.
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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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
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Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
William Dean Howells
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If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank.
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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Why art thou but a nest of gloom While the bobolinks are singing?
William Dean Howells
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It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom.
William Dean Howells
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He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.
William Dean Howells
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It is the curse of prosperity that it takes work away from us, and shuts that door to hope and health of spirit.
William Dean Howells
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The disposition to give a cup of cold water to a disciple is a far nobler property than the finest intellect. Satan has a fine intellect, but not the image of God.
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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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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Preach the blessings of our deeply incorporated civilization by the mouths of our eight-inch guns.
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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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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See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusionSee how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious.
William Dean Howells