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William Faulkner Quotes - Page 2

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Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other.

Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other.

William Faulkner
Reality, Facts

History is not was, it is.

William Faulkner
Inspirational, Motivational, History

We have to start teaching ourselves not to be afraid.

William Faulkner
Fear, Teaching, Learning

A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences.

William Faulkner
Responsibility, Gentleman, Bears
William Faulkner (1999). “Novels, 1957-1962”

It's all now you see: tomorrow began yesterday and yesterday won't be over until tomorrow.

William Faulkner
Yesterday, Tomorrow

Your illusions are a part of you like your bones and flesh and memory.

William Faulkner
Memories, Flesh, Bones
William Faulkner (1951). “Absalom, Absalom!”

The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.

William Faulkner
Life, Art, Moving
1956 Interview in Paris Review, Spring.

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.

William Faulkner
Freedom, 4th Of July, Patriotic
William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.151, Modern Library

Our most treasured family heirloom are our sweet family memories. The past is never dead, it is not even past.

William Faulkner
Sweet, Memories, Past

There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others. But a man shouldn't fool with booze until he's fifty; then he's a damn fool if he doesn't.

William Faulkner
Funny, Humorous, Drinking
In James M. Webb and A. Wigfall Green William Faulkner of Oxford (1965) p. 110

The ideal woman which is in every man's mind is evoked by a word or phrase or the shape of her wrist, her hand. The most beautiful description of a woman is by understatement. Remember, all Tolstoy ever said to describe Anna Karenina was that she was beautiful and could see in the dark like a cat. Every man has a different idea of what's beautiful, and it's best to take the gesture, the shadow of the branch, and let the mind create the tree.

William Faulkner
Beautiful, Women, Cat
Quoted in Reader's Digest, Mar. 1973

I believe man will not merely endure, he will prevail...because he has a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

William Faulkner
Life, Believe, Sacrifice

Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects, longer than knowing even wonders.

William Faulkner
Memories, Believe, August
William Faulkner (1972). “Light in August”, Vintage

The books I read are the ones I knew and loved when I was a young man and to which I return as you do to old friends.

William Faulkner
Book, Men, Old Friends

The salvation of the world is in man's suffering.

William Faulkner
Men, World Suffering, Salvation
William Faulkner (1994). “Novels 1942-1954”

If happy I can be I will, if suffer I must I can.

William Faulkner
Determination, Optimistic, Suffering
William Faulkner, Noel Polk (1987). “Absalom, Absalom!, typescript setting copy and miscellaneous material”, Facsimiles-Garl

A mule will labor ten years willingly and patiently for you, for the privilege of kicking you once.

William Faulkner
Patience, Years, Mules
William Faulkner (2011). “Flags in the Dust: The complete text of Faulkner's third novel, which appeared in a cut version as Sartoris”, p.290, Vintage

People need trouble - a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.

William Faulkner
Strength, Mean, Artist

A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune

William Faulkner
Tired, Men, Thinking
William Faulkner (2011). “FAULKNER READER”, p.104, Modern Library

No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vices of his ancestors.

William Faulkner
Grief, Men, Vices
"Intruder in the Dust".

To live anywhere in the world today and be against equality because of race or color is like living in Alaska and being against snow.

William Faulkner
Life, Equality, Alaska
William Faulkner (2011). “Essays, Speeches & Public Letters”, p.101, Modern Library

I love Virginians because Virginians are all snobs and I like snobs. A snob has to spend so much time being a snob that he has little time left to meddle with you.

William Faulkner
Littles, Time Left, Snob

Pouring out liquor is like burning books.

William Faulkner
Book, Burning, Pouring

So, never be afraid. Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed. If you, not just you in this room tonight, but in all the thousands of other rooms like this one about the world today and tomorrow and next week, will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.

William Faulkner
Honesty, Lying, Men

The past is never dead. It's not even past.

William Faulkner
Wisdom, Past, Heredity And Environment
Requiem for a Nun act 1 (1951)

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