Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder Quotes

Playwright

Filter quotes by topic

AllOur TownWorldKnowsLifeLovePeopleHumansChildrenEarthMenDoeIfsTheaterThornton WilderHuman BeingsMomentsSelfThinkingWayYears

Famous Thornton Wilder Quotes

“That’s what it was like to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those...of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know- that’s the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness. -Simon Stimson, OUR TOWN”

KnowsYearsSelfFeelingsWantedMovingTimePassionExistenceMillionsAliveIgnoranceWasteMercyTownsCloudsWasting TimeBlindnessUp And DownSelf CenteredOur Town
Book:Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker
Create image

“[Dona Maria] saw that the people of this world moved about in an armor of egotism, drunk with self-gazing, athirst for compliments, hearing little of what was said to them, unmoved by the accidents that befell their closest friends, in dread of all appeals that might interrupt their long communion with their own desires.”

PeopleWorldLittlesLongSaidSelfMightDesireSawsThis WorldMovedHearingAccidentsDrunkAppealsComplimentDreadClosestCommunionEgotismArmorGazingClosest Friends
Book:The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel
Create image

“She had never realized any love save love as passion. Such love, though it expends itself in generosity and thoughtfulness, though it give birth to visions and to great poetry, remains among the sharpest expressions of self-interest. Not until it has passed though a long servitude, though its own self-hatred, though mockery, though great doubts, can it take its place among the loyalties. Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.”

GivingChildrenLongSelfPassionLostInterestVisionDoubtDogExpressionBirthHatredRemainsLifetimeLoyaltyYesterdayGenerositySelf InterestMockeryServitudeSelf HatredThoughtfulnessGreat Poetry
Author:Thornton Wilder
Create image