60 Inspirational William Faulkner Quotes (LIFE)

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Top 10 Most Famous William Faulkner Quotes (BEST)

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it.
Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
William Faulkner

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore. — You cannot swim for new horizons until you have **courage** to lose sight of the shore.

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world... would do this, it would change the earth. — Never be afraid to raise your voice for **honesty** and **truth** and **compassion** against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world… would do this, it would **change** the earth.

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. — We must be free not because we claim **freedom**, but because we practice it.

Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. — Always **dream** and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.

Don't do what you can do - try what you can't do. — Don’t do what you can do – try what you can’t do.

Unless you're ashamed of yourself now and then, you're not honest. — Unless you’re ashamed of yourself now and then, you’re not honest.

The past is never dead. It's not even past. — The past is never dead. It’s not even past.

Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid. — Be scared. You can’t help that. But don’t be afraid.

Perhaps they were right putting love into books. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else. — Perhaps they were right putting **love** into books. Perhaps it could not live anywhere else.

9 Inspirational William Faulkner Quotes About Life

“So, never be afraid. Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion, against injustice and lying and greed. If you, not just you in this room tonight, but in all the thousands of other rooms like this one about the world today and tomorrow and next week, will do this, not as a class or classes, but as individuals, men and women, you will change the earth.”
William Faulkner

Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.

A gentleman can live through anything. — A **gentleman** can live through anything.

Don't bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself. — Don’t bother just to be better than others. Try to be better than yourself.

Dreams have only one owner at a time. That's why dreamers are lonely. — **Dreams** have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely.

Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all. — **Gratitude** is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.

A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences. — A gentleman accepts the **responsibility** of his **actions** and bears the burden of their consequences.

If a story is in you, it has to come out.

Nothing matters but breath, breathing, to know and to be alive.

6 William Faulkner Quotes on Love

You don’t love because you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults. — You don’t **love** because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults.

The saddest thing about love, Joe, is that not only the love cannot last forever, but even the heartbreak is soon forgotten. — The saddest thing about **love**, Joe, is that not only the love cannot last forever, but even the heartbreak is soon forgotten.

Sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words. — Sin and **love** and **fear** are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words.

The next time you try to seduce anyone, don't do it with talk, with words. Women know more about words than men ever will. And they know how little they can ever possibly mean. — The next time you try to seduce anyone, don’t do it with talk, with words. Women know more about words than men ever will. And they know how little they can ever possibly mean.

Marriage is long enough to have plenty of room for time behind it. — **Marriage** is long enough to have plenty of room for time behind it.

5 William Faulkner Quotes on Success

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything good. — Get it down. Take **chances**. It may be bad, but it’s the only way you can do anything good.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

Don’t be 'a writer.' Be writing. — Don’t be ‘a writer.’ Be writing.

It’s not when you realize that nothing can help you – religion, pride, anything – it’s when you realize that you don’t need any aid.

7 William Faulkner Quotes on Time and Death

Clocks slay time. Time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life. — Clocks slay time. **Time** is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.

Life is a process of preparing to be dead for a long time.

Time is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was - only is. — **Time** is a fluid condition which has no existence except in the momentary avatars of individual people. There is no such thing as was – only is.

A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune. — A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you’d think misfortune would get tired but then **time** is your misfortune.

It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That’s how the world is going to end.

People to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too.

And sure enough, even waiting will end… if you can just wait long enough.

13 William Faulkner Quotes that will Make You Think

“It’s a shame that the only thing a man can do for eight hours a day is work. He can’t eat for eight hours; he can’t drink for eight hours; he can’t make love for eight hours. The only thing a man can do for eight hours is work.”
William Faulkner