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

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.
William Dean Howells

How is it the great pieces of good luck fall to us?
William Dean Howells

If we like a man's dream, we call him a reformer; if we don't like his dream, we call him a crank.
William Dean Howells

In Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.
William Dean Howells

Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.
William Dean Howells

Is it worth while to observe that there are no Venetian blinds in Venice?
William Dean Howells

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

Primitive societies without religion have never been found.
William Dean Howells

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

The action is best that secures the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
William Dean Howells

The book which you read from a sense of duty, or because for any reason you must, does not commonly make friends with you.
William Dean Howells

The conqueror is regarded with awe; the wise man commands our respect; but it is only the benevolent man that wins our affection.
William Dean Howells

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

The secret of the man who is universally interesting is that he is universally interested.
William Dean Howells

There will presently be no room in the world for things; it will be filled up with the advertisements of things.
William Dean Howells

Tomorrow I shall be sixty-nine, but I do not seem to care. I did not start the affair, and I have not been consulted about it at any step.
William Dean Howells

We are creatures of the moment; we live from one little space to another, and only one interest at a time fills these.
William Dean Howells

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

Wisdom and goodness are twin-born, one heart must hold both sisters, never seen apart.
William Dean Howells