Quotes by Stephen Crane

“In the desertI 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 itBecause it is bitter,And because it is my heart.”

“Judge not my passion, by my want of skill,Many love well, though they express it ill.”

Two or three angelsCame near to the earth.They saw a fat church.Little black streams of peopleCame and went in continually.And the angels were puzzledTo know why the people went thus,And why they stayed so long within.

When the suicide arrived at the sky, the people there asked him: Why? He replied: Because no one admired me.

Tell her thisAnd more,—That the king of the seasWeeps too, old, helpless man.The bustling fatesHeap his hands with corpsesUntil he stands like a childWith surplus of toys.

It perhaps might be said--if any one dared--that the most worthless literature of the world has been that which has been written by the men of one nation concerning the men of another.

A serious prophet upon predicting a flood should be the first man to climb a tree. This would demonstrate that he was indeed a seer.

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?

Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind.Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky And the affrighted steed ran on alone, Do not weep.War is kind.Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment, Little souls who thirst for fight, These men were born to drill and die.The unexplained glory flies above them, Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom -A field where a thousand corpses lie.Do not weep, babe, for war is kind.

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.

These men were born to drill and die.            Point for them the virtue of the slaughter,            Make plain to them the excellence of killing            And a field where a thousand corpses lie.

But as the girl timidly accosted him, he gave a convulsive movement and saved hisrespectability by a vigorous side-step. He did not risk it to save a soul. For how was he toknow that there was a soul before him that needed saving?

This poor gambler isn’t even a noun. He is kind of an adverb.

Every sin is the result of a colaboration

A man with a full stomach and the respect of his fellows had no business to scold about anything that he might think to be wrong in the ways of the universe, or even with the ways of society. Let the unfortunates rail; the others may play marbles.

The moon had been lighted and was hung in a treetop.

It appeared that the swift wings of their desires would have shattered against the iron gates of the impossible.

Camp fires, like red, peculiar blossoms, dotted the night.

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 weWhere 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.

The maddened four men followed frantically, for it is better to be in the presence of the awful than only within hearing. (The Black Dog)