Quote #6

See how today's achievement is only tomorrow's confusion; See how possession always cheapens the thing that was precious.

More from William Dean Howells

  1. He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.
  2. The wrecks of slavery are fast growing a fungus crop of sentiment.
  3. Her mouth is a honey-blossom, No doubt, as the poet sings; But within her lips, the petals, Lurks a cruel bee that stings.
  4. The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
  5. And before you know me gone Eternity and I are one.
  6. I am not sorry for having wrought in common, crude material so much; that is the right American stuff; and perhaps hereafter, when my din i…
  7. Lord, for the erring thought Not into evil wrought: Lord, for the wicked will Betrayed and baffled still: For the heart from itself kept, O…
  8. Clemens was sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature.

All William Dean Howells quotes