Thornton Wilder Quotes

The art of biography is more difficult than is generally supposed.

~ Thornton Wilder

There is no need for me to curse you -the murderer survives the victim only to learn that it was himself that he longed to be rid of. Hatred is self-hatred.

~ Thornton Wilder

But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

~ Thornton Wilder

Look at that moon. Potato weather for sure.

~ Thornton Wilder

You swore you loved me, and laughed and warned me that you would not love me forever. I did not hear you. You were speaking in a language I did not understand. Never, never, I can conceive of a love which is able to foresee its own termination. Love is its own eternity. Love is in every moment of its being: all time. It is the only glimpse we are permitted of what eternity is. So I did not hear you. The words were nonsense.

~ Thornton Wilder

I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young.And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you.You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please?

~ Thornton Wilder

[Camila] was quite incapable of establishing any harmony between the claims of her art, of her appetites, or her dreams, and of her crowded daily routine. Each of these was a world in itself.

~ Thornton Wilder

The marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she is a householder.

~ Thornton Wilder

The unencumbered stage encourages the truth operative in everyone. The less seen the more heard. The eye is the enemy of the ear in real drama.

~ Thornton Wilder

Many plays certainly mine are like blank cheques. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.

~ Thornton Wilder

A play visibly represents pure existing.

~ Thornton Wilder

For what human ill does not dawn seem to be an alleviation.

~ Thornton Wilder

That's the advantage of having lived sixty-five years. You don't feel the need to be impatient any longer.

~ Thornton Wilder

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither but just to enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

~ Thornton Wilder

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.

~ Thornton Wilder

Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value.

~ Thornton Wilder

When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery He wants him to know all that being alive can bring. That is his best gift. There is no happiness save in understanding the whole.

~ Thornton Wilder

The best thing about animals is that they don't talk much.

~ Thornton Wilder

I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for.

~ Thornton Wilder

Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.

~ Thornton Wilder

Marriage is a bribe to make the housekeeper think she's a householder.

~ Thornton Wilder

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.

~ Thornton Wilder

Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.

~ Thornton Wilder

The more decisions that you are forced to make alone, the more you are aware of your freedom to choose.

~ Thornton Wilder