Thornton Wilder - The Eighth Day (1967)

11 Sourced Quotes

View all Thornton Wilder Quotes
It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.

Thornton Wilder
We do not choose the day of our birth nor may we choose the day of our death, yet choice is the sovereign faculty of the mind.

Thornton Wilder
A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference and a longer view and finds them incongruous. It dampens enthusiasm; it mocks hope; it pardons shortcomings; it consoles failure. It recommends moderation.

Thornton Wilder
Those who are silent, self-effacing and attentive become the recipients of confidences.

Thornton Wilder
Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.

Thornton Wilder
When God loves a creature he wants the creature to know the highest happiness and the deepest misery … He wants him to know all that being alive can bring. That is his best gift…. There is no happiness save in understanding the whole.

Thornton Wilder
Faith is a never-ending pool of clarity, reaching far beyond the margins of consciousness. We all know more than we know we know.

Thornton Wilder
Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day.

Thornton Wilder
The planting of trees is the least self-centered of all that we can do. It is a purer act of faith than the procreation of children.

Thornton Wilder
We were shaken into existence, like dice from a box.

Thornton Wilder
Ashley had no competitive sense and no need for money, but he took great interest in the play of numbers. He drew up charts analyzing the elements of probability in the various games. He had a memory for numbers and symbols.

Thornton Wilder