1837-1920, American Novelist, Critic
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 – [Mothers]
An acre of performance is worth a whole world of promise.
William Dean Howells – [Action]
He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.
William Dean Howells – [Noise]
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 – [Praise]
Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.
William Dean Howells – [Prejudice]
It is the still, small voice that the soul heeds, not the deafening blasts of doom.
William Dean Howells – [Voice]
Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week.
William Dean Howells – [People]
The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
William Dean Howells – [Books and Reading]
What the American public wants in the theater is a tragedy with a happy ending.
William Dean Howells – [Tragedies]