Thornton Wilder - The Matchmaker

20 Sourced Quotes

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Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

Thornton Wilder
Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions.

Thornton Wilder
People a thousand years from now - this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our living and in our dying.

Thornton Wilder
A living is made, Mr Kemper, by selling something that everybody needs at least once a year.Yes, sir! And a million ismade by producing something that everybody needs every day.You artists produce something that nobody needs at any time.

Thornton Wilder
Never support two weaknesses at the same time. It's your combination sinners — your lecherous liars and your miserly drunkards — who dishonor the vices and bring them into bad repute.

Thornton Wilder
The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, "Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home." And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.

Thornton Wilder
Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough.

Thornton Wilder
When you're at war, you think about a better life; when you're at peace you think about a more comfortable one.

Thornton Wilder
Money should circulate like rainwater … setting up a little business here and furnishing a good time there.

Thornton Wilder
The difference between a little money and no money at all is enormous... and the difference between a little money and an enormous amount of money is very slight.

Thornton Wilder
I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn't quite see the street you were in, and didn't quite hear everything that was said to you. You're just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please?

Thornton Wilder
Nurse one vice in your bosom. Give it the attention it deserves and let your virtues spring up modestly around it. Then you'll have the miser who's no liar; and the drunkard who's the benefactor of the whole city.

Thornton Wilder
Money—pardon my expression—money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.

Thornton Wilder
The best part of married life is the fights. The rest is merely so-so.

Thornton Wilder
Being employed is like being loved: you know that somebody's thinking about you the whole time.

Thornton Wilder
Ninety-nine per cent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

Thornton Wilder
Marriage is a bribe to make a housekeeper think she's a householder.

Thornton Wilder
Most of the people in the world are fools.... But there comes a moment in everybody's life when he must decide whether he'll live among the human beings or not — a fool among fools or a fool alone.

Thornton Wilder
There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head.

Thornton Wilder
I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them—it was that promise.

Thornton Wilder