William Dean Howells

An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.

— William Dean Howells

The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.

— William Dean Howells

A man never sees all that his mother has been to him until it's too late to let her know he sees it.

— William Dean Howells

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.

— William Dean Howells

Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.

— William Dean Howells

I know, indeed, of nothing more subtle satisfying and cheering than a knowledge of the real good will and appreciation of others. Such happiness does not come with money, nor does it flow from a fine physical state. It cannot be bought. But it is the keenest joy, after all; and the toiler's truest and best reward.

— William Dean Howells

Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.

— William Dean Howells

What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending.

— William Dean Howells

It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom.

— William Dean Howells

The sort of men and women that marriage enslaves would be vastly more wretched and mischievous, if they were set free. I believe that the hell people make for themselves isn't at all a bad place for them. It's the best place for them.

— William Dean Howells