20th Century Literature Quotes

“The change will do you good,” she said simply, when he had finished; “and you must be sure to go and see Ellen,” she added, looking him straight in the eyes with her cloudless smile, and speaking in the tone she might have employed in urging him not to neglect some irksome family duty.

It was the only word that passed between them on the subject; but in the code in which they had both been trained it meant: “Of course you understand that I know all that people have been saying about Ellen, and heartily sympathize with my family in their effort to get her to return to her husband. I also know that, for some reason you have not chosen to tell me, you have advised her against this course, which all the older men of the family, as well as our grandmother, agree in approving; and that it is owing to your encouragement that Ellen defies us all, and exposes herself to the kind of criticism of which Mr. Sillerton Jackson probably gave you this evening, the hint that has made you so irritable… Hints have indeed not been wanting; but since you appear unwilling to take them from others, I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other: by letting you understand that I know you mean to see Ellen when you are in Washington, and are perhaps going there expressly for that purpose; and that, since you are sure to see her, I wish you to do so with my full and explicit approval—and to take the opportunity of letting her know what the course of conduct you have encouraged her in is likely to lead to.”

Her hand was still on the key of the lamp when the last word of this mute message reached him. She turned the wick down, lifted off the globe, and breathed on the sulky flame.

“They smell less if one blows them out,” she explained, with her bright housekeeping air. On the threshold she turned and paused for his kiss.”
― Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence

“Certainty. Life's last and kindest gift.”
― Milan Kundera, Life is Elsewhere

“Cling to everything which to you is by nature and tradition holy as a son of the god like west.”
― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

“After this cut at his pride and integrity he lay in retirement for a while, mystically inclined.”
― D H Lawrence

“If you say 'war' again, I'll go in the house.”
― Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

“I don't think children's inner feelings have changed.”
― Beverly Cleary

“I do not weep at the world—I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.”
― Zora Neale Hurston, How it Feels to be Colored Me

“I was far more the pragmatic American then than I am now. Now, watching my children grow, old enough to have some sense of where I've been, having suffered enough to be no longer terrified of suffering, and knowing something of joy, too, I know that we must attempt to be responsible for what we know. Only this action moves us, without fear, into what we do not know, and what we do not know is limitless.”
― James Baldwin, Just Above My Head

“Misery and a nameless nostalgic distress possessed him.”
― Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow

“Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.”
― kaiser wilhem