Stephen Crane Quotes

It perhaps might be said-if any one dared-that the most worthless literature of the world has been that which has been written by the men of one nation concerning the men of another.

When the suicide arrived at the sky, the people there asked him: "Why?" He replied: "Because no one admired me.

Tell her this
And more, -
That the king of the seas
Weeps too, old, helpless man.
The bustling fates
Heap his hands with corpses
Until he stands like a child
With surplus of toys.

Two or three angels
Came near to the earth.
They saw a fat church.
Little black streams of people
Came and went in continually.
And the angels were puzzled
To know why the people went thus,
And why they stayed so long within.

A Man Said to the Universe

A man said to the universe:
“Sir, I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.

A serious prophet upon predicting a flood should be the first man to climb a tree. This would demonstrate that he was indeed a seer.

It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.

He saw that it was an ironical thing for him to be running thus toward that which he had been at such pains to avoid.

The slaves toiling in the temple of this god began to feel rebellion at his harsh tasks.

If I am going to be drowned - if I am going to be drowned - if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?

The moon had been lighted and was hung in a treetop.

It appeared that the swift wings of their desires would have shattered against the iron gates of the impossible.

Camp fires, like red, peculiar blossoms, dotted the night.

A man with a full stomach and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortunates rail; the others may play marbles.