“Chris: I don't know why it is, but every time I reach out for something I want, I have to pull back because other people will suffer.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“...he'll come back. We all come back, kate. These private little revolutions always die. The compromise is always made. In a peculiar way. Frank is right-- every man does have a star. The star of one's honesty. And you spend your life groping for it, but once it's out it never lights again. I don't think he went very far. He probably just wanted to be alone to watch his star go out.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“You don't realize how people can hate, they can hate so much they'll tear the world to pieces.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“(Looking at the letter in his hand) Then what is this if it isn’t telling me? Sure, [Larry] was my son. But I think to him [the pilots killed] were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“Mother: What more can we be?
Chris: You can be better! Once and for all you can know there's a universe of people outside and you're responsible to it, and unless you know that you threw away your son because that's how he died.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“Dad...you did it? (Shocked but keeping voice down) You did it to the others? You sent out a hundred and twenty cracked engine-heads and let those boys die! How could you do that? How? (Voice rises with anger) Dad...Dad, you killed twenty-one men! You killed them, you murdered them. (Becomes more furious) Explain it to me. Explain to me how you do it? What did you do? (Pause) Explain it to me goddammit or I will tear you to pieces! I want to know what you did, now what did you do? You had a hundred and twenty cracked engine-heads, now what did you do? Why'd you ship them out in the first place? If you knew they were cracked, then why didn't you tell them?”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“I don't know why it is, but every time I reach out for something I want, I have to pull back because other people will suffer. My whole bloody life, time after time after time.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“You want to live? You better figure out your life.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“Do I raise the dead when I put him behind bars? Then what'll I do it for? We used to shoot a man who acted like a dog, but honor was real there, you were protecting something. But here? This is the land of the great big dogs, you don't love a man here, you eat him!”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“Keller: You've got a business here, what the hell is this?
Chris: The business! The business doesn't inspire me.
Keller: Must you be inspired?
Chris: Yes. I like it an hour a day. If I have to grub for money all day long at least at evening I want it beautiful. I want a family, I want some kids, I want to build something I can give myself to. Annie is in the middle of that.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“Chris: For me! Where do you live, where have you come from? For me!-- I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell do you think I was thinking of, the Goddamn business? Is that as far as your mind can see, the business? What is that , the world-- the business? What the hell do you mean, you did it for me? Don't you have a country? Don't you live in the world? What the hell are you? You're not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you?”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“There are certain men in the world who rather see everybody hung before they'll take blame.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“There are certain people, the sicker they get the longer they live.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“We used to shoot a man who acted like a dog, but honor was real there, you were protecting something. But here? This is the land of the great big dogs, you don't love a man here, you eat him! That's the principle ; the only one we live by.”
― Arthur Miller, quote from All My Sons
“There is a fundamental tension between science and freedom - no matter how science is viewed by its practitioners nor how freedom is sensed by those who believe they have it.”
― Frank Herbert, quote from The Dosadi Experiment
“Just as when we step into a mosque and its high open dome leads our minds up , up , to greater things , so a great carpet seeks to do the same under the feet .Such a carpet directs us to the magnificence of the infinite , veiled , yet never near , closer than the pulse of jugular , the sunburst that explodes at the center of a carpet signals this boundless radiance . Flowers and trees evoke the pleasures of paradise, and there is always a spot at the center of the carpet that brings calm to the heart. A single white lotus flower floats in a turquoise pool , and in this tiniest of details, there it is : a call to the best within , summoning us to the joy of union .in carpets , I now saw not just intricacies of nature and color , not just mastery of space , but a sign of the infinite design . In each pattern lay the work of a weaver of the world, complete and whole ; and in each knot of daily existence lay mine .”
― Anita Amirrezvani, quote from The Blood of Flowers
“And so this letter ends
with no sadness:
my feet are firm upon the earth,
my hand writes this letter on the road,
and in the midst of life I shall be
always
beside the friend, facing the enemy,
with your name on my mouth
and a kiss that never
broke away from yours.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from The Captain's Verses
“That's what all love comes down to, doesn't it? We help others only as much as they let us.”
― Megan McCafferty, quote from Charmed Thirds
“I smelled the stink that only a street whore has after a long, busy night.”
― Iceberg Slim, quote from Pimp: The Story of My Life
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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