--- title: "2 Accomplishments Quotes By Wallace Stegner" description: "2 Accomplishments quotes by Wallace Stegner. Plus more from Wallace Stegner and more Accomplishments sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75d/wallace-stegner-1352_accomplishments_though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy_1372059.jpg" --- > [“Though I have been busy, perhaps overbusy, all my life, it seems to me now that I have accomplished little that matters, that the books have never come up to what was in my head, and that the rewards—the comfortable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy-all-my-life-it-seems-to-me/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75d/wallace-stegner-1352_accomplishments_though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy_1372059.jpg) > [“What ever happened to the passion we all had to improve ourselves, live up to our potential, leave a mark on the world? Our hottest arguments were always about how we could contribute. We did not care about the rewards.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/what-ever-happened-to-the-passion-we-all-had-to-improve-ourselves/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c96/wallace-stegner-1352_accomplishments_what-ever-happened-to-the-passion-we-all_2925906.png) ## Other authors on Accomplishments - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b001/author-jaachynma-n-e-agu-2971.jpg) Jaachynma N.E. Agu 79 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/jaachynma-n-e-agu/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b004/author-agu-jaachynma-n-e-15202.jpg) Agu Jaachynma N.E 35 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/agu-jaachynma-n-e/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b008/author-donald-j-boudreaux-29992.jpg) Agu Jaachynma N E 17 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/agu-jaachynma-n-e-3/) - [Richelle E. Goodrich 13 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/richelle-e-goodrich/) - [Israelmore Ayivor 13 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/israelmore-ayivor/) - [Lolly Daskal 11 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/lolly-daskal/) - [Lailah Gifty Akita 9 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/lailah-gifty-akita/) - [Craig D. Lounsbrough 9 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/craig-d-lounsbrough/) - [Shannon L. Alder 7 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/shannon-l-alder/) ## More by Wallace Stegner > [“I have to blame myself for not finding any way of reaching him, but I can't feel that either Ruth or I had anything…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/i-have-to-blame-myself-for-not-finding-any-way-of-reaching-him-but-i/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [No life goes past so swiftly as an eventless one, no clock spins like a clock whose days are all alike.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/no-life-goes-past-so-swiftly-as-an-eventless-one-no-clock-spins-like/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“within yourself, you became a grave for her as you were a grave for Chet, and you carried your dead unquietly within you. —”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/within-yourself-you-became-a-grave-for-her-as-you-were-a-grave-for/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/towns-are-like-people-old-ones-often-have-character-the-new-ones-are/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [By his very profession, a serious fiction writer is a vendor of the sensuous particulars of life, a perceiver and handler of things. His…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/by-his-very-profession-a-serious-fiction-writer-is-a-vendor-of-the/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“The creative writer is compulsively concrete . . . . His fictional house should be haunted by ideas, not inhabited by them; they should…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/the-creative-writer-is-compulsively-concrete-his-fictional-house/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Hard writing makes easy reading.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/hard-writing-makes-easy-reading/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [You married me...but you didn't marry what you could make out of me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/you-married-me-but-you-didn-t-marry-what-you-could-make-out-of-me/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Wisdom. . .is knowing what you have to accept.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/wisdom-is-knowing-what-you-have-to-accept/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“His mouth is full of ecology, his mind is full of fumes.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/his-mouth-is-full-of-ecology-his-mind-is-full-of-fumes/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [I gave my heart to the mountains the minute I stood beside this river with its spray in my face and watched it thunder…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/i-gave-my-heart-to-the-mountains-the-minute-i-stood-beside-this-river/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“Poetry ought to be a by-product of living, and you can't have a by-product unless you've got a product first .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/poetry-ought-to-be-a-by-product-of-living-and-you-can-t-have-a-by/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/something-will-have-gone-out-of-us-as-a-people-if-we-ever-let-the/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [“Some people, I am told, have memories like computers, nothing to do but punch the button and wait for the print-out. Mine is more…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/some-people-i-am-told-have-memories-like-computers-nothing-to-do-but/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) > [ “\[Y\]ou were too alert to the figurative possibilities of words not to see the phrase \[angle of repose\] as descriptive of human as well… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/y-ou-were-too-alert-to-the-figurative-possibilities-of-words-not-to/) [Wallace Stegner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wallace-stegner/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/accomplishments/wallace-stegner/#itemlist", "name": "2 Accomplishments Quotes By Wallace Stegner", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Though I have been busy, perhaps overbusy, all my life, it seems to me now that I have accomplished little that matters, that the books have never come up to what was in my head, and that the rewards—the comfortable income, the public notice, the literary prizes, and the honorary degrees—have been tinsel, not what a grown man should be content with.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wallace Stegner" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wallace-stegner/though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy-all-my-life-it-seems-to-me/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75d/wallace-stegner-1352_accomplishments_though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy_1372059.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75d/wallace-stegner-1352_accomplishments_though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy_1372059.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/75d/wallace-stegner-1352_accomplishments_though-i-have-been-busy-perhaps-overbusy_1372059.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Though I have been busy, perhaps overbusy, all my life, it seems to me now that I have accomplished little…” — Wallace Stegner", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“What ever happened to the passion we all had to improve ourselves, live up to our potential, leave a mark on the world? 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