Stephen Crane Quotes

The conceit of man was explained by this storm to be the very engine of life.

Alone in the kitchen, Horace stared with sombre eyes at the plate of food. For a long time he betrayed no sign of yielding. His mood was adamantine. He was resolved not to sell his vengeance for bread, cold ham, and a pickle, and yet it must be known that the sight of them affected him powerfully. The pickle in particular was notable for its seductive charm. He surveyed it darkly.

The doctor was shaving this lawn as if it were a priest's chin.

The youth perceived that the time had come. He was about to be measured. For a moment he felt in the face of his great trial like a babe, and the flesh over his heart seemed very thin.

His face had been twisted into an expression of every agony he had imagined for his friend.

With the conviction came a store of assurance. He felt a quiet manhood, non-assertive but of sturdy and strong blood. He knew that he would no more quail before his guides wherever they should point. He had been to touch the great death, and found that, after all, it was but the great death. He was a man.

"Little Birds of the Night"

LITTLE birds of the night
Aye, they have much to tell
Perching there in rows
Blinking at me with their serious eyes
Recounting of flowers they have seen and loved
Of meadows and groves of the distance
And pale sands at the foot of the sea
And breezes that fly in the leaves.
They are vast in experience
These little birds that come in the night

skirmishers who were running hither and thither

You get so frightfully hungry as soon as you learn that there are no more meals coming.

"Many workmen Built a huge ball of masonry Upon a mountain-top. Then they went to the valley below, And turned to behold their work. "It is grand," they said; They loved the thing. Of a sudden, it moved: It came upon them swiftly; It crushed them all to blood. But some had opportunity to squeal."

As the landscape changed from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble with eagerness at the noise of rumors.

In death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life he had perhaps concealed from his friends.

"I SAW A MAN PURSUING THE HORIZON;
ROUND AND ROUND THEY SPED.
I WAS DISTURBED AT THIS;
I ACCOSTED THE MAN.
"IT IS FUTILE," I SAID,
"YOU CAN NEVER" — "YOU LIE," HE CRIED,
AND RAN ON."

Many a man ought to have a bath-tub larger than the boat which here rode upon the sea.

Formidable women, with uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped while leaning on railings, or screamed in frantic quarrels.