Theodore Dreiser

"The human heart desires the impossible."

"Society is built on conventions of which the most important are those relating to sex."

"I wonder about the trees... I wonder if the trees have thoughts."

"When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve them."

"The test of the first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time."

"We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole."

"If you would judge a man, put him in his circumstances."

"Work is the only thing that makes life bearable."

"In the affairs of the world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it."

"Character is the ability to follow through on a resolution long after the emotion of the moment has passed."

"The secret of existence is to have no fear."

"All art is memory, all memory is art."

"To be free one must be willing to face and accept death."

"Personality is a series of masks, each appropriate to the moment."

"The mind is everything. What you think you become."

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."

"I believe in the compelling power of love."

"Men are moved more by fear than by desire."

"The greatest wealth is health."

"Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch."

"Life has got all those twists and turns. It's got layoffs, it's got fights, it's got moments of great hope."

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation."

"Every person is a universe unto themselves."

"To be successful, you must show up mentally and emotionally prepared to do battle."

"The greatest tragedy is indifference."

"Life is only that which is lived now."

"We are not punished for our sins, we are punished by them."

"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul."

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear."

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."