For these local families of distinction were convinced that not only one’s family but one’s wealth was the be-all and end-all of every happy union meant to include social security. And in consequence, while considering Clyde as one who was unquestionably eligible socially, still, because it had been whispered about that his means were very slender, they were not inclined to look upon him as one who might aspire to marriage with any of their daughters.

— Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser Quotes

Who were these people with money, and what had they done that they should enjoy so much luxury, where others as good seemingly as themselves had nothing? And wherein did these latter differ so greatly from the successful?

— Theodore Dreiser

The long drizzle had begun. Pedestrians had turned up collars and trousers at the bottom. Hands were hidden in the pockets of the umbrella-less – umbrellas were up. The street looked like a sea of round, black-cloth roofs, twisting, bobbing, moving. Trucks and vans were rattling in a noisy line, and everywhere men were shielding themselves as best they could.

— Theodore Dreiser

Oh, blessed are the children of endeavor in this, that they try and are hopeful. And blessed also are they who, knowing, smile and approve.

— Theodore Dreiser

In short, he was one of those early, daring manipulators who later were to seize upon other and even larger phases of American natural development for their own aggrandizement.

— Theodore Dreiser

I was a moral coward, and he was not losing his life and desires through fear – which the majority of us do.

— Theodore Dreiser

His brain was his office.

— Theodore Dreiser

All men should be good, all women virtuous. Wherefore, villain, hast thou failed?

— Theodore Dreiser

Conservatism – hard work – saving one’s money – looking neat and gentlemanly. It was such an Eveless paradise, that.

— Theodore Dreiser

He paused, wishing to embrace her, but feeling for the moment that he should not. Then, reaching into a waistcoat pocket, he took from it a thin gold locket, the size of a silver dollar, which he opened and handed to her. One interior face of it was lined with a photograph of Berenice as a girl of twelve, thin, delicate, supercilious, self-contained, distant, as she was to this hour.

— Theodore Dreiser

And they were always testifying as to how God or Christ or Divine Grace had rescued them from this or that predicament – never how they had rescued any one else. And.

— Theodore Dreiser

What did you lie to me.

— Theodore Dreiser

It is an exceptional thing to find beauty, youth, compatibility, intelligence, your own point of view – softened and charmingly emotionalized – in another.

— Theodore Dreiser

As they sang, this nondescript and indifferent street audience gazed, held by the peculiarity of such an unimportant-looking family publicly raising its collective voice against the vast skepticism and apathy of life.

— Theodore Dreiser

I was in Chicago before I came here, but I didn’t do so very much dancing. I had to work.” He was thinking how such girls as she had everything, as contrasted with girls like Roberta, who had nothing. And yet, as he now felt in this instance, he liked Roberta better. She was sweeter and warmer and kinder – not so cold.

— Theodore Dreiser

The nature of these vast retail combinations, should they ever permanently disappear, will form an interesting chapter in the commercial history of our nation.

— Theodore Dreiser

It was that old mass yearning for a likeness in all things that troubled them, and him.

— Theodore Dreiser

Thus in life there is ever the intellectual and the emotional nature – the mind that reasons, and the mind that feels. Of one come the men of action – generals and statesmen; of the other, the poets and dreamers – artists all.

— Theodore Dreiser

People like money even more than they do looks.

— Theodore Dreiser

For these local families of distinction were convinced that not only one’s family but one’s wealth was the be-all and end-all of every happy union meant to include social security. And in consequence, while considering Clyde as one who was unquestionably eligible socially, still, because it had been whispered about that his means were very slender, they were not inclined to look upon him as one who might aspire to marriage with any of their daughters.

— Theodore Dreiser

What a wretched thing it was to be born poor and not to have any one to do anything for you and not to be able to do so very much for yourself!

— Theodore Dreiser
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