Sinclair Lewis

"It is the nature of progress that it makes the past seem wrong."

"Don't you dare take the lazy approach and accept things as they are."

"Sincere faith is the best intellect, and the best intellect is a faith in the nobility of human nature."

"Every compulsion is put upon us by other people, hardly by ourselves."

"A man may be a pessimist and still be a good husband."

"Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket."

"All Gents who own land feel that they're men of ability."

"The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it."

"I like your name. It's so American."

"To be quiet was to be excluded; to talk was to be vulgar."

"He was afraid of his own mind."

"The successful man has thrust himself into the world, has ventured forth."

"A man who has won a victory over himself knows something of the mercy of the Almighty."

"The most dangerous enemy to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge."

"Intellectually I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country."

"Arrogance, incompetence, and an almost studied lack of interest in the human condition."

"There are no nations; there are only men."

"Nothing is more precious than laughter."

"Beauty is a worse mistress than any political intrigue."

"To run away from trouble is a form of cowardice."

"People will buy anything that is one to a customer."

"I have never been able to discover anything noble about poverty except poverty."

"The mind, quick to jump to conclusions, was slower in retracting them."

"Our American professors like their literature clear, cold, pure, and very dead."

"The man who has no enemies is the man who has no conviction."

"I nap, therefore I am."

"In every American there is an air of friction or annoyance, as if things as they are were alien to him, wrong, and should be altered."

"The greatest asset of any nation is the health of its people."

"You can't build a great building on a weak foundation."

"The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything."