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Like all the rich he could not bring himself to believe that the poor (look at their houses, look at their clothes!) could really suffer. Like all the cultivated he believed that only the widely read could be said to know that they were unhappy.

— Thornton Wilder The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)

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More quotes by Thornton Wilder

Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow.

The Matchmaker (1954)

I hold that we cannot be said to be aware of our minds save under responsibility.

The Ides of March (1948)

Wherever you come near the human race there's layers and layers of nonsense.

Our Town (1938)

Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value.

Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. ...Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?

Our Town (1938)

All Thornton Wilder quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Thornton Wilder (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.