Authors: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

100 Top Wallace Stegner Quotes To Learn From

Famous As: Author
Born On: February 18, 1909
Died On: April 13, 1993
Born In: Lake Mills
Founder / Co Founder: Committee for Green Foothills
Died At Age: 84

Wallace Earle Stegner, well-known as the ‘Dean of Western Writers’, was an American historian, environmentalists, novelist and short story writer who encourage the need for preserving the West in younger generation of authors. This world-famous author received Commonwealth Club Gold Medal for ‘All the Little live Things’ (1967), Pulitzer Prize for ‘Angle of Repose’ (1972) and the U.S. National Book Award for The Spectator Bird (1977).It’s unfair to categorize him as merely a ‘western writer’. His works cover both non-fiction and fiction ideas upholding conservation ideals. Books like Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, The Big Rock Candy Mountain, Living and Writing in the West and Beyond the Hundredth Meridian earned him millions of followers in his life time. A collection of short essays on significant issues earned him the famous National Book Critics Circle nomination. Stegner believed a fiction writer has no other agenda but to tell truth. This ideology inspired several aspiring American writers to seek and present their own version of truth in their writing. Having a flair for reading writing and researching, Stegner wanted to belong to something and he did, to Western environment, history and culture. We have collected his quotes from his most popular works and writings. Here is a collection of best Wallace Earle Stegner quotes!

Listed In:
Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to
wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

Most things break, including hearts. The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

Wallace Stegner
Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.

Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.

Wallace Stegner
Wisdom. . .is knowing what you have to accept.

Wisdom. . .is knowing what you have to accept.

Wallace Stegner
It is an easy mistake to think that non-talkers are non-feelers.

It is an easy mistake to think that non-talkers are non-feelers.

Wallace Stegner
It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by, and it's persistent and aggravated imbecility to pretend you can live without any.

It is the beginning of wisdom when you recognize that the best you can do is choose which rules you want to live by, and it's persistent and aggravated imbecility to pretend you can live without any.

Wallace Stegner
The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

The lessons of life amount not to wisdom, but to scar tissue and callus.

Wallace Stegner
He used to tell me, 'Do what you like to do. It'll probably turn out to be what you do best.

He used to tell me, 'Do what you like to do. It'll probably turn out to be what you do best.

Wallace Stegner
There it was, there it is, the place where during the best time of our lives friendship had its home and happiness its headquarters.

There it was, there it is, the place where during the best time of our lives friendship had its home and happiness its headquarters.

Wallace Stegner
She had rooms in her mind that she would not look into.

She had rooms in her mind that she would not look into.

Wallace Stegner
Be proud of every scar on your heart, each one holds a lifetime’s worth of lessons.

Be proud of every scar on your heart, each one holds a lifetime’s worth of lessons.

Wallace Stegner
There is a sense in which we are all each other's consequences.

There is a sense in which we are all each other's consequences.

Wallace Stegner
We write to make sense of it all.

We write to make sense of it all.

Wallace Stegner
Youth hasn't got anything to do with chronological age. It's times of hope and happiness.

Youth hasn't got anything to do with chronological age. It's times of hope and happiness.

Wallace Stegner
You'll do what you think you want to do, or what you think you ought to do. If you're very lucky, luckier than anybody I know, the two will coincide.

You'll do what you think you want to do, or what you think you ought to do. If you're very lucky, luckier than anybody I know, the two will coincide.

Wallace Stegner
Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.

Towns are like people. Old ones often have character, the new ones are interchangeable.

Wallace Stegner
I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow

I shall be richer all my life for this sorrow

Wallace Stegner
Our last impression of her as she turned the corner was that smile, flung backward like a handful of flowers.

Our last impression of her as she turned the corner was that smile, flung backward like a handful of flowers.

Wallace Stegner
Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?

Do we respond only to people who seem to find us interesting?

Wallace Stegner
You can't retire to weakness -- you've got to learn to control strength.

You can't retire to weakness -- you've got to learn to control strength.

Wallace Stegner
In a way, it is beautiful to be young and hard up. With the right wife, and I had her, deprivation became a game.

In a way, it is beautiful to be young and hard up. With the right wife, and I had her, deprivation became a game.

Wallace Stegner
A writer is an organism that will go on writing even after its heart has been cut out.

A writer is an organism that will go on writing even after its heart has been cut out.

Wallace Stegner
It is love and friendship, the sanctity and celebration of our relationships, that not only support a good life, but create one. Through friendships, we spark and inspire one another's ambitions.

It is love and friendship, the sanctity and celebration of our relationships, that not only support a good life, but create one. Through friendships, we spark and inspire one another's ambitions.

Wallace Stegner
Wherever you find the greatest good, you will find the greatest evil, because evil loves paradise as much as good.

Wherever you find the greatest good, you will find the greatest evil, because evil loves paradise as much as good.

Wallace Stegner
You married me...but you didn't marry what you could make out of me.

You married me...but you didn't marry what you could make out of me.

Wallace Stegner
It's easier to die than to move ... at least for the Other Side you don't need trunks.

It's easier to die than to move ... at least for the Other Side you don't need trunks.

Wallace Stegner
No life goes past so swiftly as an eventless one, no clock spins like a clock whose days are all alike.

No life goes past so swiftly as an eventless one, no clock spins like a clock whose days are all alike.

Wallace Stegner
Faith can reclaim deserts as well as move mountains.

Faith can reclaim deserts as well as move mountains.

Wallace Stegner
Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality.

Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality.

Wallace Stegner
We are fossils in the making.

We are fossils in the making.

Wallace Stegner
No one who has studied Western history can cling to the belief that the Nazis invented genocide.

No one who has studied Western history can cling to the belief that the Nazis invented genocide.

Wallace Stegner