Howells Quotes & Sayings

People are born and married, and live and die, in the midst of an uproar so frantic that you would think they would go mad of it. — William Dean Howells

That's when I know they've never lost someone. If they had, they'd understand. That you always miss them. That the pain doesn't go. That life stops. — Debbie Howells

The Lord always shows you all the difficulties when He is going to do anything through you. — Rees Howells

An acre of performance is worth the whole Land of promise — James Howell

(W.D.) Howells asserted that the Americans' 'love of the supernatural is their common inheritance from no particular ancestry.' Their fiction, he added, often gathers in the gray 'twilight of the reason,' on 'the borderland between experience and illusion. Howells's geographical metaphor was derived, of course, from Hawthorne's idea of a moonlit 'neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other.' Whether literally, as in Cooper's The Spy, or metaphorically, as in Hawthorne's works, the neutral territory/borderland was the familiar setting of the American romance. As American writers came to realize, not only was there a borderland between East and West, civilization and wilderness, but also between the here and the hereafter, between conscious and unconscious, 'experience and illusion' - psychic frontiers on the edge of territories both enticing and terrifying. — Howard Kerr

Unless we are really trusting Him, where does the praise come in? This peace the Savior gives is not an artificial one. It is so deep that even the devil can't disturb it. You can't hear things in the Spirit while you have any turmoil or fear in you. You can't take a shade of fear into the presence of God. — Rees Howells

If you don't have any dreams then they won't come true. — Amanda Howells

I loved your world, Noah. It was a magical place, where there were stars and love, and there was hope. Hope. I don't think you know how it is not to have that. I stole some of yours. It was beautiful, but there were too many secrets between us, and I always knew I'd have to give it back. — Debbie Howells

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

The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment. — William Dean Howells

Christ and the life of Christ is at this moment inspiring the literature of the world as never before, and raising it up a witness against waste and want and war. It may confess Him, as in Tolstoi's work it does, or it may deny Him, but it cannot exclude Him; and in the degree that it ignores His spirit, modern literature is artistically inferior. In other words, all good literature is now Christmas literature. — William Dean Howells

I wonder why we hate the past so. — William Dean Howells

The swelling and towering omnibuses, the huge trucks and wagons and carriages, the impetuous hansoms and the more sobered four-wheelers, the pony-carts, donkey-carts, hand-carts, and bicycles which fearlessly find their way amidst the turmoil, with foot-passengers winding in and out, and covering the sidewalks with their multitude, give the effect of a single monstrous organism, which writhes swiftly along the channel where it had run in the figure of a flood till you were tired of that metaphor. You are now a molecule of that vast organism. — William Dean Howells

New York may be splendidly gay or squalidly gay but prince or pauper, it's gay always ... Yes, gay is the word ... but frantic. I can't get used to it. They forget death, Basil; they forget death in New York. — William Dean Howells

They're on a crash course to nowhere. But you, my lady friend, you're a black hole. You've sucked me in, and now there's no escape ... — Amanda Howells

It's very odd ... that some values should have this peculiarity of shrinking. You never hear of values in a picture shrinking; but rents, stocks, real estate
all those values shrink abominably. — William Dean Howells

It's the whole country that makes or breaks a thing like this. New York has very little to do with it. Now if it were a play, it would be different. New York does make or break a play; but it doesn't make or break a book; it doesn't make or break a magazine. The great mass of the readers are outside of New York and the rural districts are what we have got to go for. They don't read much in New York; they write and talk about what they've written. Don't you worry. — William Dean Howells

The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested. — William Dean Howells

She had conquered, but she had also necessarily lost much. Perhaps what she had lost was not worth keeping; but at any rate she had lost it. — William Dean Howells

Forest to their fields of corn and tobacco on the fertile slopes and rich bottom-lands. The — William Dean Howells

I'm a realist," I replied stubbornly, "not a romantic. Romantics
are always disappointed."
"Maybe they're disappointed because they're always surrounded
by realists." Simon countered. — Amanda Howells

The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number. — William Dean Howells

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

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

... in Altruria every one works with his hands, so that the hard work shall not all fall to any one class; and this manual labor of each is sufficient to keep the body in health, as well as to earn a living. After the three, hours' work, which constitutes a day's work with us, is done, the young people have all sorts of games and sports, and they carry them as late into life as the temperament of each demands. — William Dean Howells

Believing is never a waste of time." Simon looked at me intently his eyes flickering. "Even if you're wrong you could have been right. Take me with my painting I don't know if I'm any good. So maybe I shouldn't try because maybe I'd be setting myself up for disappointment. But it's like you looking for old coins on the beach. Whether you find any or not is for bonus points it's the search that counts. It's the belief that they might be out there. — Amanda Howells

He was making music - Howells, Finzi, Holst - so you could see the sounds in the serried air.
Serried. Then just as suddenly empty when his sound-proof right hand closed off the notes. — Craig Raine

If he was not commonplace, it was through nothing remarkable in his mind, which was simply clear and practical, but through some combination of qualities of the heart that made men trust him, and women call him sweet
a word of theirs which conveys otherwise indefinable excellences. — William Dean Howells

See what fun it is to do what Simon Says? Simon teased,
drawing closer toward me. — Amanda Howells

The novelist might be greater possible help to us if they painted life as it is, and human feelings in their true proportion and relation, but for the most part they have been and are altogether noxious. — William Dean Howells

It was not a particularly sane spectacle, that impatience to be off to some place that lay not only in the distance, but also in the future - to which no line of road carries you with absolute certainty across an interval of time full of every imaginable chance and influence. It is easy enough to buy a ticket to Cincinnati, but it is somewhat harder to arrive there. Say that all goes well, is it exactly you who arrive? — William Dean Howells

See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusion;See how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious. — William Dean Howells

No, no. I understand that. And I quite agree with you. But you know I've always contended that the affections could be made to combine pleasure and profit. I wouldn't have a man marry for money,
that would be rather bad,
but I don't see why, when it comes to falling in love, a man shouldn't fall in love with a rich girl as easily as a poor one. Some of the rich girls are very nice, and I should — William Dean Howells

I dare say if you'd asked him plumply what he meant in regard to the young lady, he would have told you - if he knew.'
'Why, don't you think he does know, Bromfield?'
'I'm not at all sure he does. You women think that because a young man dangles after a girl, or girls, he's attached to them. It doesn't at all follow. He dangles because he must, and doesn't know what to do with his time, and because they seem to like it. I dare say that Tom has dangled a good deal in this instance because there was nobody else in town. — William Dean Howells

Out of the fragrant heart of bloom, The bobolinks are singing; Out of the fragrant heart of bloom The apple-tree whispers to the room, Why art thou but a nest of gloom While the bobolinks are singing? — William Dean Howells

During this period the Lord has allowed us to be tested beyond our strength; often 'pressed out of measure, above strength ... that we should not trust in ourselves.' Our faith has grown with the work, and we have proved over and over again that all the testings have been for the purpose of strengthening it. — Rees Howells

You may live in a crowd but you meet God and face eternity alone — Rees Howells

Living faith is above circumstances; no delays can discourage it, no loss of friends or depression in trade can touch it. — Rees Howells

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

How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us? — William Dean Howells

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

Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week. — William Dean Howells

The stranger looked at his watch; he jumped to his feet. "Nine o'clock! Mrs. Braile, I'm ashamed. But you must blame your husband, partly. Good night, ma'am; good - Why, look here, Squire Braile!" he arrested himself in offering his hand. "How about the obscurity of the scene where Joe Smith founded his superstition, which bids fair to live right along with the other false religions? Was Leatherwood, Ohio, a narrower stage than Manchester, New York? And in point of time the two cults were only four years apart. — William Dean Howells

The promises of God are equal to current coin. Therefore, I must act on the promises as I would if I actually had the cash. — Rees Howells

What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending. — William Dean Howells

Suddenly your whole life is like a car crash, no brakes, gaining momentum, piling up behind you. Your mistakes, missed opportunities, all the time you've wasted, a twisted, rusting heap of scrap metal that can't be salvaged. Overwhelming you. Crushing you. — Debbie Howells

Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself. — William Dean Howells

Do not be afraid of the word 'theory'. Yes, it can sound dauntingly abstract at times, and in the hands of some writers can appear to have precious little to do with the actual, visual world around us. Good theory however, is an awesome thing. [ ... ] But unless we actually use it, it borders on the metaphysical and might as well not be used at all. — Richard Howells

Our theory of disaster, of sorrow, of affliction, borrowed from the poets and novelist, is that it is incessant; but every passage in our own lives and in the lives of others, so far as we have witnessed them, teaches us that this is false. The house of mourning is decorously darkened to the world, but within itself it is also the house of laughing. Burst of gaiety, as heartfelt as its grief, relieve the gloom, and the stricken survivors have their jest together, in which the thought of the dead is tenderly involved, and a fond sense, not crazier than many others, of sympathy and enjoyment beyond the silence, justifies the sunnier mood before sorrow rushes back, deploring and despairing, and make it all up again with the conventional fitness of things. — William Dean Howells

By beauty of course I mean truth, for the one involves the other; it is only the false in art which is ugly, and it is only the ugly that is universal. — William Dean Howells

I haven't done anything--yet. — William Dean Howells

I am yours, for time and eternity
time and eternity. — William Dean Howells

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence. — William Dean Howells

I wish you to believe whatever you think is true, at any and every cost. — William Dean Howells

I fancy you may tell the truth about yourself. But all of it? The black truth, which we all know ourselves in our hearts, or only the whity-brown truth of the pericardium, or the nice, whitened truth of the shirtfront? Even you [Mark Twain] won't tell the black heart's-truth. The man who could do it would be famed to the last day the sun shown upon. — William Dean Howells

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

The surest way to hurt yourself is to give up on love, just because it didn't
work out the first time. — Amanda Howells

Some people stay longer in an hour than others do in a month. — William Dean Howells

No work of God can become established unless it goes through the fire. — Rees Howells

But there's that thing with secrets, too, how they take over your head, feeding on your every thought, growing bigger all the time until the day comes they're so heavy you can't walk. — Debbie Howells

Each one of us must suffer long to himself before he can learn that he is but one in a great community of wretchedness which has been pitilessly repeating itself from the foundation of the world. — William Dean Howells

A friend knows how to allow for mere quantity in your talk, and only replies to the quality. — William Dean Howells

The Bible is common-sense inspired. — Rees Howells

That's how birthdays were in our house. All hateful charades of pretty clothes, expensive presents, and ugly words . . . — Debbie Howells

She liked the words; they satisfied her famine for phrases. — William Dean Howells

For my part, I wish, with Mr. Howells, that the literature of the past might be purged of all that is ugly and barbarous in it, although I should object as much as any one to having these great works weakened or falsified. — Helen Keller

You can play the part for so long, wear the mask, say what people expect you to say. Fight for as long as there is air in your lungs. Fly if you have wings. But you can never be free from someone who won't let you go. — Debbie Howells

You think you know everything that's happening around you. But you can't always see clearly when your standing right there in the picture. — Amanda Howells

I've wondered since if you can ever truly read a face. It's too easy to see what you so desperately want to see, even if it isn't there. I knew that. — Debbie Howells

Putting yourself at risk ... that was the only path to anything meaningful. The biggest risk was in not taking a risk. — Amanda Howells

After that, Simon swam naked every night. By the third skinnydipping
session, I secretly peeled off my bikini top while I was in
the water. It was safe. Simon was splashing somewhere ahead of
me. He couldn't see. It was an amazing feeling. I felt free. Or at least half of me did.
And right then that seemed to "t with the person I felt I was on
Long Island: half-cautious, half-spontaneous, surprising myself
with my random behavior, my sudden moves away from who I
thought I was.
"So how was it, your half skinny dip?" Simon asked as I was
drying off.
"You were watching me?" I blushed, horrified.
"Just a hunch," he replied. "Feels good though, right?"
I hit him with the towel. — Amanda Howells

You can only take steps toward the future you want. It's not guaranteed to be there.
This is why you have to live inside each beautiful or terrible thing as it happens to you because the present may be all you've got. And if there's more ahead then the present is where you can really shape your future. — Amanda Howells

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart. — William Dean Howells

It was one of many times I tried to save her. But by the time I did, it was too late. — Debbie Howells

The difficulty is to know conscience from self-interest. — William Dean Howells

Tomorrow I shall be sixty-nine, but I do not seem to care. I did not start the affair, and I have not been consulted about it at any step. — William Dean Howells

Even if there was something noble about having faith, it still hurt when you lost it. — Amanda Howells

She was so thin I could probably deck her on the side of the head with a pack of Marlboro Lights and she'd hemmorrhage internally. — Amanda Howells

Preach the blessings of our deeply incorporated civilization by the mouths of our eight-inch guns. — William Dean Howells

I will now claim - until dispossesed - that I was the first person in the world to apply the typewriter to literature ... The early machine was full of caprices, full of defects- devilish ones. It had as many immoralities as the machine of today has virtues. After a year or two I found that it was degrading my character, so I thought I would give it to Howells ... He took it home to Boston, and my morals began to improve, but his have never recovered. — Mark Twain

I was fourteen when I fell in love with a goddess. Goddesses have that effect, even on teenagers. — Debbie Howells

Yes, there's sense in that. But the suddenly rich are on a level with any of us nowadays. Money buys position at once. I don't say that it isn't all right. The world generally knows what it's about, and knows how to drive a bargain. I dare say that it makes the new rich pay too much. But there's no doubt but money is to the fore now. It is the romance, the poetry of our age. It's the thing that chiefly strikes the imagination. The Englishmen who come here are more curious about the great new millionaires than about anyone else, and they respect them more. It's all very well. I don't complain of it. — William Dean Howells

Deliverance is always found on 'the mount'; living faith must first prove to God that it has taken His word and promise for victory. — Rees Howells

I was being strong. Even though I felt weak. — Amanda Howells

It's astonishing how well the worse reason looks when you try to make it appear the better. — William Dean Howells

If ever the public was betrayed by its press, it's ours. — William Dean Howells

You know, how there are some people who have no time for small things? Pettiness, I mean. In the way they let things go - because whatever huge, life-changing thing happened to them gave them a perspective most of us can't ever have. — Debbie Howells

Look. Aren't they romantic?" Simon said, pointing out two "re!ies
dancing together, their glowing lights making spirals in the dark.
"Not necessarily," I replied. "there are "re!y species where the
females trick the males into thinking they want to mate, but they
eat them instead."
"Oh, yeah, I think I know a few of them." Simon laughed — Amanda Howells

How strange it (the earthquake) must all have seemed to them, here where they lived so safely always! They thought such a dreadful thing could happen to others, but not to them. That is the way! — William Dean Howells

You have to live inside each beautiful or terrible thing as it happens to you, because the present may be all you've got. — Amanda Howells

The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all. — William Dean Howells

#anks for the swim. You are a majestic swimmer," Simon said
as we neared the walkway to Wind Song.
"You talk a lot of crap, you know that?"
"I thank you for appreciating my verbal stylings," Simon replied,
with a formal bow. — Amanda Howells

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

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

I don't know," said the papa. "We shall just have to keep on and see. Perhaps when they meet the Prince and Princess we shall find out. I don't suppose a boy would fall in love with a boy." "No," said the niece; "but he might want to go off with him and have fun, or something." "That's true," said the papa. "We've got to all watch out. — William Dean Howells

After dreaming about being in love for so long I finally got what it meant to actually be in it. — Amanda Howells

But it was not the note that counted so much as the writing of it.
Just because it wouldn't last forever out there didn't mean it hadn't
existed. that's why I was there. I was there for a moment. And
because of a string of beautiful moments spent at that very same
place, moments I would keep inside me wherever I went. — Amanda Howells

Death casts its shadow, leaving our hearts sad and tainting our world with fear. — Debbie Howells

Primitive societies without religion have never been found. — William Dean Howells

All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our country. A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it. But we, who live remote from history and monuments, we must read or we must barbarise. — William Dean Howells