Arthur Miller > Quotes

“Everything we are is at every moment alive in us.”
― Arthur Miller

“Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.”
― Arthur Miller, A View from the Bridge: A Play in Two Acts

“Don't be seduced into thinking that that which does not make a profit is without value.”
― Arthur Miller

“Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.”
― Arthur Miller, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”
― Arthur Miller

“Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“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 speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always.”
― Arthur Miller

“The jungle is dark but full of diamonds, Willy.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“A small man can be just as exhausted as a great man.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism

“I stopped in the middle of that building and I saw — the sky. I saw the things that I love in this world. The work and the food and time time to sit and smoke. And I looked at the pen and said to myself, what the hell am I grabbing this for? Why am I trying to become what I don't want to be? What am I doing in an office, making a contemptuous, begging fool of myself, when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am! Why can't I say that, Willy?”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman: Text and Criticism

“Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“The two most common elements in the world are hydrogen and stupidity.”
― Arthur Miller

“If I have to be alone I want to be by myself.”
― Arthur Miller

“Sometimes...it's better for a man just to walk away.
But if you can't walk away?
I guess that's when it's tough.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“You are pulling down heaven and raising up a whore”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“More Weight
-Giles Corey-”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“I don't say he's a great man. Willie Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.”
― Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

“Chris: I don't know why it is, but every time I reach out for something I want, I have to pull back because other people will suffer.”
― Arthur Miller, All My Sons

“A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“The very impulse to write springs from an inner chaos crying for order - for meaning.”
― Arthur MIller

“...an everlasting funeral marches round your heart.”
― Arthur Miller, The Crucible

“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, The Crucible

“A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”
― Arthur Miller