I rose by sheer military ability to the rank of corporal.

Characterization in a play is like a blank check which the dramatist accords to the actor for him to fill in.

The public for which masterpieces are intended is not of this earth.

Favors cease to be favors when there are conditions attached to them.

Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success.

We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being. -stage manager, in the play OUR TOWN

On the stage it is always now; the personages are standing on that razor-edge, between the past and the future, which is the essential character of conscious being.