Booth Tarkington Quotes

32 quotes in 449 categories

• I'm not so sure he's wrong about automobiles," he said, "With all their speed forward they may be a step backward for civilization-that is, spiritual…
• There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever, and one of them is that he has taken to drink
• The things that we have and that we think are so solid - they're like smoke, and time is like the sky that the smoke…
• My theory on literature is an author who does not indulge in trashiness-writes about people you could introduce into your own home...he did not care…
• Men were just like sheep, and nothing was easier than for women to set up as shepherds and pen them up in a field.
• Christmas day is the children's, but the holidays are youth's dancing-time.
• Boyhood is the longest time in life for a boy. The last term of the school-year is made of decades, not of weeks, and living…
• Youth cannot imagine romance apart from youth.
• The understanding smile of an old wife to her husband is one of the loveliest things in the world.
• They were upon their great theme: "When I get to be a man!" Being human, though boys, they considered their present estate too commonplace to…
• Destiny has a constant passion for the incongruous.
• The only good in pretending is the fun we get out of fooling ourselves that we fool somebody.
• Take your work seriously but never take yourself seriously and do not take what happens either to yourself or your work seriously.
• An ideal wife is any woman who has an ideal husband.
• Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
• Whatever does not pretend at all has style enough.
• I'm not sure he's wrong about automobiles," he said. "With all their speed forward they may be a step backward in civilization -- that is,…
• Some day the laws of glamour must be discovered, because they are so important that the world would be wiser now if Sir Isaac Newton…
• Mothers see the angel in us because the angel is there. If it's shown to the mother, the son has got an angel to show,…
• There aren't any old times. When times are gone they're not old, they're dead! There aren't any times but new times!

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