sinclair lewis

“ It's one of our favorite American myths that broad plains necessarily make broad minds, and high mountains make high purpose. ”

“ One time I said that you were my soul. And that still goes. ”

“ It has not yet been recorded that any human being has gained a very large or permanent contentment from meditation upon the fact that he is better off than others. ”

“ The trouble with this country is... that there're too many people going about saying 'The trouble with this country is'. ”

“ The days of pioneering, of lassies in sunbonnets, and bears killed with axes in piney clearings, are deader now than Camelot; and a rebellious girl is the spirit of that bewildered empire called the American Middlewest. ”

“ Funny how the world always praises its opera-singers so much and pays 'em so well and then starves its shoemakers, and yet it needs good shoes so much more than it needs opera--or war or fiction. ”

“ Vast is the power of cities to reclaim the wanderer. ”

“ Do you think it's so snobbish, to want to see something besides one's fellow citizens abroad? ”

“ Men die, but the plutocracy is immortal; and it is necessary that fresh generations should be trained to its service. ”

“ In novels, these truth-seekers quested the 'secret of life' in laboratories which did not seem to be provided with Bunsen flames or reagents... ”