Top 33 Stephen Crane Quotes About Life (POETRY)

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Top 14 Most Famous Stephen Crane Quotes (BEST)

“When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.”
Stephen Crane

Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.

A man said to the universe 'Sir, I exist!' 'However,' replied the universe. 'The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.' — A man said to the universe: ‘Sir, I exist!’ ‘However,’ replied the universe. ‘The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.’

There is nothing like a dream to create the future. — There is nothing like a **dream** to create the **future**.

When a man suspects his own motives, he is on the brink of madness.

Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time. — **Truth** is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in **time**.

Every sin is the result of collaboration. — Every sin is the result of **collaboration**.

There are two things in the world - ideas and things. The rest is the commentary. — There are two things in the world – ideas and things. The rest is the commentary.

“In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial, who, squatting upon the ground, held his heart in his hands, and ate of it. I said, ‘Is it good, friend?’ ‘It is bitter — bitter,’ he answered, ‘But I like it because it is bitter, and because it is my heart.”
Stephen Crane

Truth is a breath, a wind, a shadow, a phantom; Long have I pursued it, but never have I touched the hem of its garment. — **Truth** is a breath, a wind, a shadow, a phantom; Long have I pursued it, but never have I touched the hem of its garment.

Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to be the final phenomenon of nature. — Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to be the final phenomenon of **nature**.

“These stupid peasants, who, throughout the world, hold potentates on their thrones, make statesmen illustrious, provide generals with lasting victories, all with ignorance, indifference, or half-witted hatred, moving the world with the strength of their arms, and getting their heads knocked together in the name of God, the king, or the stock exchange-immortal, dreaming, hopeless asses, who surrender their reason to the care of a shining puppet, and persuade some toy to carry their lives in his purse.”
Stephen Crane

Think as I think, said a man, or you are abominably wicked; you are a toad. And after I thought of it, I said, I will, then, be a toad. — “Think as I think,” said a man, “or you are abominably wicked; you are a toad.” And after I thought of it, I said, “I will, then, be a toad.”

19 Stephen Crane Quotes that Will Make You Think

“Philosophy should always know that indifference is a militant thing. It batters down the walls of cities and murders the women and children amid the flames and the purloining of altar vessels. When it goes away it leaves smoking ruins, where lie citizens bayonetted through the throat. It is not a children’s pastime like mere highway robbery.”
Stephen Crane

Mother, whose heart hung humble as a button the bright splendid shroud of your son, do not weep. War is kind. — **Mother**, whose heart hung **humble** as a button the bright splendid shroud of your son, do not weep. War is **kind**.

“I walked in a desert.
And I cried,
‘Ah, God, take me from this place!’
A voice said, ‘It is no desert.’
I cried, ‘Well, But –
The sand, the heat, the vacant horizon.’
A voice said, ‘It is no desert.’”
Stephen Crane

It was surprising that nature had gone tranquilly on with her golden process in the midst of so much devilment.

“There is nothing-
No life,
No joy,
No pain-
There is nothing save opinion,
And opinion be damned.”
Stephen Crane

He saw that it was an ironical thing for him to be running thus toward that which he had been at such pains to avoid.

“The voice of God whispers in the heart
So softly
That the soul pauses,
Making no noise,
And strives for these melodies,
Distant, sighing, like faintest breath,
And all the being is still to hear.”
Stephen Crane

“If I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned—if I am going to be drowned, why, in the name of the seven mad gods who rule the sea, was I allowed to come thus far and contemplate sand and trees?”
Stephen Crane

“Two or three angels
Came near to the earth.
They saw a fat church.
Little black streams of people
Came and went in continually.
And the angels were puzzled
To know why the people went thus,
And why they stayed so long within.”
Stephen Crane

“A learned man came to me once.
He said, “I know the way, — come.”
And I was overjoyed at this.
Together we hastened.
Soon, too soon, were we
Where my eyes were useless,
And I knew not the ways of my feet.
I clung to the hand of my friend;
But at last he cried, “I am lost.”
Stephen Crane

“When the prophet, a complacent fat man,
Arrived at the mountain-top
He cried: “Woe to my knowledge!
I intended to see good white lands
And bad black lands—
But the scene is grey.”
Stephen Crane