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Quote by Wallace Stegner

“There must be some other possibility than death or lifelong penance ... some meeting, some intersection of lines; and some cowardly, hopeful geometer in my brain tells me it is the angle at which two lines prop each other up, the leaning-together from the vertical which produces the false arch. For lack of a keystone, the false arch may be as much as one can expect in this life. Only the very lucky discover the keystone.”

Quote by Wallace Stegner

Book:Angle of Repose
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Work

Angle of Repose

A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that explores themes of memory, art, and the passage of time through the eyes of a sculptor and his family living in the American West during the late 19th century. more

Author

Wallace Stegner
Wallace Stegner

Wallace Stegner was an influential American historian known for his extensive research on the history of the American West. His works not only documented the pioneering journey of the American West but also profoundly reflected the relationship between humans and nature. Stegner's writing style was unique and his language beautiful, which won him great popularity among readers. more

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DeathChildhoodDisillusionment
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“Now this is a most satisfactory and important thing to think about, for brutality will not,—cannot,—accomplish what a kindly disposition will; and, if folks could only know how quickly a “balky” child will, through loving and cuddling, grow into a charming, happy youth, much childish gloom and sorrow would vanish; for a man or woman who is ugly to a child is too low to rank as highly as a wild animal; for no animal will stand, for an instant, anything approaching an attack, or any form of harm to its young. But what a lot of tots find slaps, yanks and hard words for conditions which do not call for such harsh tactics! No child is naturally ugly or “cranky.” And big, gulping sobs, or sad, unhappy young minds, in a tiny body should not occur in any community of civilization. Adulthood holds many an opportunity for such conditions. Childhood should not.”

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“Youth!! Ah, what a word!! And how transitory! But, how grand! as long as it lasts. How many millions in gold would pour out for an ability to call it all back, as with our musical myth, Faust. During that magic part of a child’s growth this world is just a gigantic inquiry box, containing many a topic for which a solution is paramount to a growing mind. And to whom can a child look, but us adults? Any man who “can’t stop now” to talk with a child upon a topic which, to him is“too silly for anything,” should look back to that day upon which that topic was dark and dubious in his own brain. A child who asks nothing will know nothing. That is why that “bump of inquiry” was put on top of our skulls.”

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“يبدو أننا أحياناً نفضل أن ندور حول رغباتنا بدلاً من الاعتراف بها لأنفسنا والمجاهرة بها، حتى لا نتحمل في سبيل ذلك بعض العناء كضريبة ضرورية لنيل ما نريد ،أو لأننا نغمغم لأنفسنا بما نرغب ونترقب من الأقدار أن تهبه لنا بغير أن نبدو نحن ساعين إليه أو متلهفين عليه لأننا نخجل أن نجاهر به و-"الخياط العظيم لا يقص كثيراً " كما يقول المثل الصيني ،وإنما يمضي إلى هدفه المحدد بلا تردد فلا يقطع إلا ما يتطلبه تحقيق هذا الهدف أما نحن فإننا نقص في إتجاهات مختلفة وبعيدة عن الهدف الذي نتمناه صامتين وننتظر من يرغمنا على السعادة التي نعرفها ونريدها من أعماقنا”

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