Arthur Miller > Quotes

“I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor--cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“Forget now. Live.”
― Arthur Miller, All My Sons

“The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space. Evidently the time came in New England when the repressions of order were heavier than seemed warranted by the dangers against which the order was organized. The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“I like to keep abreast of my ignorance”
― Arthur Miller, All My Sons

“Be liked and you will never want.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are!”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“Then what is this if it isn’t telling me? Sure, he was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were.”
― Arthur Miller

“He was talking as though someone we both knew had just died, and it filled me with happiness. Such is art.”
― Arthur Miller

“If I strike oil I'll send you a check. Meantime forget I'm alive”
― Arthur Miller, Death Of A Salesman

“My dreams of many years had simply become too damned real, and the reality was less than the dream and lacked all dedication.”
― Arthur Miller

“I dreamed I had a child, and even in the dream I saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran away. But it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And I bent to its broken face, and it was horrible…but I kissed it. I think one must finally take one’s life in one’s arms.”
― Arthur Miller, After the Fall

“I may think of you softly from time to time. But I'll cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“I may think of you softly from time to time. But I’ll cut my hand before I ever reach for you again”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“God’s power is love without limit. But when a man dares reach for that... he is only reaching for the power.”
― Arthur Miller, After the Fall

“Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem –vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”
― Arthur Miller

“A fart on Thomas Putnam.”
― Arthur Miller

“Don’t you understand what I’m talking about? He’s going to kill himself, don’t you know that?”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“. . . we are only what we always were, but naked now.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“We invent ourselves, Vic, to wipe out what we know.”
― Arthur Miller, The Price

“Forgive me, dear. I can’t cry. I don’t know what it is, I can’t cry. I don’t understand it. Why did you ever do that? Help me Willy, I can’t cry. It seems to me that you’re just on another trip. I keep expecting you. Willy, dear, I can’t cry. Why did you do it? I search and search and I search, and I can’t understand it, Willy. I made the last payment on the house today. Today, dear. And there’ll be nobody home.
We’re free and clear.
We’re free.
We’re free... We’re free...”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“Every generation looks back longingly to an earlier age when things were simpler and clearer, a time before degeneration began.”
― Arthur Miller

“The world is an oyster, but you don't crack it open on a mattress!”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“on the night the Rosenbergs were executed, the cast and audience of The Crucible stood in silence as a gesture of respect.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“I had striven all my life to win this night, and it was here, and I was this celebrated man who had amazingly little to do with me, or I with him.”
― Arthur Miller

“Science was reason’s triumph, we had been so pridefully taught, the defeat of the Beast. But what happened when the Beast learned science?”
― Arthur Miller

“If she is truly in the Devil’s grip we may have to rip and tear to get her free.”
― Arthur Miller

“Siempre me he propuesto no desperdiciar mi vida y, cada vez que vuelvo aquí, me doy cuenta de que lo único que he hecho es desperdiciarla.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“Ce qui m'oppose à tant de courants de la psychanalyse c'est leur présupposé que la souffrance est une erreur, un signe de faiblesse ou même un signe de maladie. Alors qu'en fait, les plus grandes vérités que nous connaissons proviennent probablement de la souffrance des gens.”
― Arthur Miller

“WILLY [smiling]: Well, I figure, what the hell, life is short, a couple of jokes. [To himself] I joke too much! [The smile goes.]”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman