Ben Ames Williams > Quotes

“I've already done the best I could with yesterday.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Leave Her to Heaven

“and then something woke in me. It wasn't just -- appetite. It was more permanent than that. I wanted to possess her, not for a moment but forever; wanted her to be -- as the word goes -- mine.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Leave Her to Heaven

“Her garments borrowed grace from her.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Leave Her to Heaven

“Ain’t you afraid of bears?’ he asked her. ‘You’d ought to have a man along to take care of ye. I can oblige ye, any time.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“Used to be an Indian grave on the island there, Mima. All built out of stones. They took ’em to use for foundations over at Taylor’s.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“I guess thinking about things, all by yourself, is as good as going to any church.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“Loving you -- if I love you -- is only a beginning...But if I ever hold you in my arms, to do so will be a part of something a great deal bigger than ourselves; no more than an incident in a great plan.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Leave Her to Heaven

“Remembering can be a hard thing on a man," he suggested. "I wear life like an old pair of shoes that's easy on my feet.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Leave Her to Heaven

“Probably all over the world there were wars and hate and violence; but if you did not know about them, they did not harm you. A man — or a woman — had enough to do living his own life, loving good and hating evil in himself and in those near him. It did no good, only great harm, to hate Linneken, and the British, and all those others whose lives never touched your own.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“Would you break my neck for wanting a kiss?’ She nodded quietly. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I might, if I didn’t want to give it to you.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“Ellen, he knew now, would marry him if he chose; but he had been sure for years that he would never marry anyone, and he was sure tonight he would never marry Ellen. 'We'd always be either on the peaks, sublimely happy, or in the bleak valleys of anger and despair,' he told himself; and he knew he would prefer to dwell in a pleasant intervale, one of those lovely spots which so often he had seen along a northern river, where the grassy meadows were dotted with tall graceful elms, and quiet deer came feeding, and a little brook sang near-by, and there were friendly hills all about, and perhaps a few mountains, not too closely seen, visible far away.
Yes, it was peace a man wanted. He reflected with an amused smile that Ruth was much more the sort of woman an author ought to marry: self-effacing, strong, serene, with a sense of humor which occasionally revealed itself in her pleasant eyes. But of course there was no question of his marrying Ruth!
For that matter, there was no question of his marrying anyone!”
― Ben Ames Williams, Leave Her to Heaven

“You have to think a man is an animal before you can kill him like one and not have your stomach turned.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“Folks would be better off half the time to make things do — or else do without.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“We’ll find a man for you,’ he promised.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring

“Till now this land had been useless wilderness, untamed and wild, serving no useful end. Now man had set it free to serve the ends of man.”
― Ben Ames Williams, Come Spring