Quotes from The Iceman Cometh

Eugene O'Neill ·  240 pages

Rating: (6.9K votes)


“To hell with the truth! As the history of the world proves, the truth has no bearing on anything. It's irrelevant and immaterial, as the lawyers say. The lie of a pipe dream is what gives life to the whole misbegotten mad lot of us, drunk or sober.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“God damn you, stop shoving your rotten soul in my lap!”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“You can't be too careful about work. It's the most dangerous habit known to medical science.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“LARRY--(with increasing bitter intensity, more as if he were fighting with himself than with Hickey) I'm afraid to live, am I?--and even more afraid to die! So I sit here, with my pride drowned on the bottom of a bottle, keeping drunk so I won't see myself shaking in my britches with fright, or hear myself whining and praying: Beloved Christ, let me live a little longer at any price! If it's only for a few days more, or a few hours even, have mercy, Almighty God, and let me still clutch greedily to my yellow heart this sweet treasure, this jewel beyond price, the dirty, stinking bit of withered old flesh which is my beautiful little life! (He laughs with a sneering, vindictive self-loathing, staring inward at himself with contempt and hatred. Then abruptly he makes Hickey again the antagonist.) You think you'll make me admit that to myself?”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“You’ll say to yourself, I’m just an old man who is scared of life, but even more scared of dying. So I’m keeping drunk and hanging on to life at any price, and what of it?”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh



“And I took a seat in the grandstand of philosophical detachment to fall asleep observing the cannibals do their death dance.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“(General Wetjoen talking about the Boer War)Let him come! I have seen them come before -- at Margesfontein, Spion Kiopje, Modder River. Stepping into battle, left right left right, waving their silly swords, so afraid they couldn't show off how brave they was, and with mine rifle I kills them so easy!”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


“Stay passed out, that's the right dope. There ain't any cool willow trees- except you grow your own in a bottle.”
― Eugene O'Neill, quote from The Iceman Cometh


About the author

Eugene O'Neill
Born place: in New York, New York, The United States
Born date October 16, 1888
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Chloe's fingers flew over her keyboard. I raised an eyebrow at Hunter. "Is she Googling hunter-assholes? I doubt they have their own Web page."
Chloe snorted. "You'd be surprised."
"She's hacking the school files," Hunter said. "She does it all the time."
"Don't they have security for that kind of thing?"
Chloe snorted again. "Please." I knew that tone. Connor used it whenever someone called his computer mojo into question.”
― Alyxandra Harvey, quote from Blood Moon


“So it follows that those who have reason have freedom to will or not to will, although this freedom is not equal in all of them. [...] human souls are more free when they persevere in the contemplation of the mind of God, less free when they descend to the corporeal, and even less free when they are entirely imprisoned in earthly flesh and blood.”
― Boethius, quote from The Consolation of Philosophy


“As a general rule. it's a comfort issue, literally and metaphorically. And intimacy issue. It's a big step, putting on foreign underwear. Like betrayal, or emigration.”
― Lee Child, quote from A Wanted Man


“The glories of the past compensated for the imperfections of the present.”
― Margaret MacMillan, quote from Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World


“No matter how many years passed or how much responsibility each assumed, they still managed to bicker like bitchy teenagers on a regular basis. In some way, though, each found it comforting; it reminded them how close they really were: Acquaintances were always on their best behavior, but sisters loved each other enough to say anything.”
― Lauren Weisberger, quote from Chasing Harry Winston


Interesting books

More Happy Than Not
(20.9K)
More Happy Than Not
by Adam Silvera
Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth
(19.9K)
Jimmy Corrigan, the...
by Chris Ware
Sourcery
(63.8K)
Sourcery
by Terry Pratchett
The Future of an Illusion
(4.8K)
The Future of an Ill...
by Sigmund Freud
Don't Die, My Love
(15K)
Don't Die, My Love
by Lurlene McDaniel
Hamilton: The Revolution
(30.4K)
Hamilton: The Revolu...
by Lin-Manuel Miranda

About BookQuoters

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.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.