Don Marquis

“There’s a dance in the old dame yet.”

“it wont be long now it wont be longman is making deserts of the earthit wont be long nowbefore man will have used it upso that nothing but antsand centipedes and scorpionscan find a living on it....what man calls civilizationalways results in deserts....men talk of money and industryof hard times and recoveriesof finance and economicsbut the ants wait and the scorpions waitfor while men talk they are making deserts all the timegetting the world ready for the conquering antdrought and erosion and desertbecause men cannot learn....it wont be long now it wont be longtill earth is barren as the moonand sapless as a mumbled bone”

“i look back on my lifeand it seems to me to bejust one damned kittenafter another”

“An optimist is a man who has never had much experience.”

“If a child shows himself to be incorrigible, he should be decently and quietly beheaded at the age of twelve, lest he grow to maturity, marry, and perpetuate his kind.”

“Life is one damned kitten after another." Mehitabel the Alley Cat”

“I never think at all when I writenobody can do two things at the same timeand do them both well”

“Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday”

“it is better to be a part of beautyfor one instant and then cease toexist than to exist foreverand never be a part of beauty”

“Publishing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.”

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”

“Fishing: a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes.”

“i do not see why menshould be so proudinsects have the moreancient lineageaccording to the scientistsinsects were insectswhen man was onlya burbling whatsit”

“The wand waved; the Adam's Apple leapt, and they were off. What followed cannot be indicated typographically. But if a cat were a sawmill, and a dog were a gigantic cart full of tin cans bouncing through a stone paved street, and that dog and that cat hated each other and were telling each other so, it would sound much like it.”

“Nearly every night before I go to bed I ask myself, "Have I vibrated in tune with the Infinite today, or have I failed?”

“Vibrations are the key to everything. Atoms used to be, but atoms have quite gone out.”

“my youth i shall never forgetbut there s nothing i really regretwotthehell wotthehellthere s a dance in the old dame yettoujours gai toujours gai”

“fire is beautifuland we know that if we gettoo close it will kill usbut what does that matterit is better to be happy for a momentand be burned up with beautythan to live a long timeand be bored all the while”

“A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.”

“If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that's read by persons who move their lips when they're reading to themselves.”

“The female of all species are most dangerous when they appear to retreat.”

“When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?”

“The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race. ”

“An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe it.”

“a spider and a flyi heard a spiderand a fly arguingwait said the flydo not eat mei serve a great purposein the worldyou will have toshow me said the spideri scurry aroundgutters and sewersand garbage canssaid the fly and gatherup the germs oftyphoid influenzaand pneumonia on my feetand wingsthen i carry these germsinto households of menand give them diseasesall the people whohave lived the rightsort of life recoverfrom the diseasesand the old soaks whohave weakened their systemswith liquor and iniquitysuccumb it is my missionto help rid the worldof these wicked personsi am a vessel of righteousnessscattering seeds of justiceand serving the noblest usesit is true said the spiderthat you are moreuseful in a ploddingmaterial sort of waythan i am but i do notserve the utilitarian deitiesi serve the gods of beautylook at the gossamer websi weave they float in the sunlike filaments of songif you get what i meani do not work at anythingi play all the timei am busy with the stuffof enchantment and the materialsof fairyland my workstranscend utilityi am the artista creator and demi godit is ridiculous to supposethat i should be deniedthe food i need in orderto continue to createbeauty i tell youplainly mister fly it is alldamned nonsense for that foodto rear up on its hind legsand say it should not be eatenyou have convinced mesaid the fly say no moreand shutting all his eyeshe prepared himself for dinnerand yet he said i couldhave made out a casefor myself too if i hadhad a better line of talkof course you could said the spiderclutching a sirloin from himbut the end would have beenjust the same if neither ofus had spoken at allboss i am afraid that whatthe spider said is trueand it gives me to thinkfuriously upon the futilityof literaturearchy”

“i have beenused something fierce in my time buti am no bum sport archyi am a free spirit archy ilook on myself as beingquite a romantic character oh thequeens i have been and the swell feeds i have atea cockroach which you areand a poet which you used to bearchy couldn t understandmy feelings at having comedown to this i havehad bids to elegant feeds where poetsand cockroaches wouldneither one be mentioned without alaugh archy i have hadadventures but ihave never been an adventuress”

“From 'the lesson of the moth':and before i could argue himout of his philosophyhe went and immolated himselfon a patent cigar lighteri do not agree with himmyself i would rather havehalf the happiness and twicethe longevitybut at the same time i wishthere was something i wantedas badly as he wanted to fry himself”

“Not every woman in old slippers can manage to look like Cinderella”

“Our is a world where people don't know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.”

“personally my ambition is to get my time as a cockroach shortened for goodbehavior and be promoted to a revenue officerit is not much of a step up but i am humble”

“i have had my ups and downsbut wotthehell wotthehellyesterday sceptres and crownsfried oysters and velvet gownsand today i herd with bumsbut wotthehell wotthehelli wake the world from sleepas i caper and sing and leapwhen i sing my wild free tunewotthehell wotthehellunder the blear eyed mooni am pelted with cast off shoonbut wotthehell wotthehell”

“How often when they find a sage As sweet as Socrates or PlatoThey hand him hemlock for his wageOr bake him like a sweet potato!-Taking the Longer View”