25 Thomas Wolfe Quotes From the Early 20th Century Writer

Enjoy these Thomas Wolfe quotes from the famous writer. 

Thomas Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1900 and died in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1938 at the young age of 37.

His mother was successful in buying and selling real estate, while his father was a successful stone carver who specialized in gravestones.

He started attending the University of North Carolina at the age of 15 and fell in love with the stage, where he strived to become a playwright.

He then received his Master’s Degree from Harvard and served as a professor at New York University while still writing plays.

After about seven years, he was still unable to sell any of his plays due to their great length, and he decided to concentrate on writing fiction instead of writing for the stage.

Take a look at these Thomas Wolfe quotes to learn more about the talented writer.

Best Thomas Wolfe Quotes

Here are some of the best quotes from Thomas Wolfe.

1. “Don’t let them slow you down.” — Thomas Wolfe

2. “Toil on, son, and do not lose heart or hope.” — Thomas Wolfe

3. “Culture is the arts elevated to a set of beliefs.” — Thomas Wolfe

4. “The human mind is a fearful instrument of adaptation.” — Thomas Wolfe

5. “Most of the time we think we’re sick, it’s all in the mind.” — Thomas Wolfe

6. “Nothing shocked them anymore. It was the way things were.” — Thomas Wolfe

7. “We call upon you to take heart, for we can swear to you that these things pass.” — Thomas Wolfe

8. “Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart?” — Thomas Wolfe

9. “Loneliness is and always has been the central and inevitable experience of every man.” — Thomas Wolfe

10. “There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than that of a beautiful woman in the act of cooking dinner for someone she loves.” — Thomas Wolfe

Poetic Thomas-Wolfe Quotes

Wolfe was known as a writer who was very poetic in his works.

11. “Then summer fades and passes, and October comes.” — Thomas Wolfe

12. “A young man is so strong, so mad, so certain, and so lost.” — Thomas Wolfe

13. “I have to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once.” — Thomas Wolfe

14. “The disappointment of reaching for the flower and having it fade the moment your fingers touch it.” — Thomas Wolfe

15. “Child, child, have patience and belief, for life is many days, and each present hour will pass away.” — Thomas Wolfe

16. “He had learned that he could not devour the earth, that he must know and accept his limitations.” — Thomas Wolfe

17. “But why had he always felt so strongly the magnetic pull of home, why had he thought so much about it and remembered it with such blazing accuracy, if it did not matter?” — Thomas Wolfe

Thought-Provoking Thomas Wolfe Quotes

Check out these quotes from Thomas Wolfe that are sure to make you think.

18. “Make your mistakes, take your chances, look silly, but keep on going. Don’t freeze up.” — Thomas Wolfe

19. “The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book, and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.” — Thomas Wolfe

20. “You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.” — Thomas Wolfe

21. “He was so infinitely patient, so unflaggingly hopeful of George’s improvement, so unfailingly good-natured and courteous.” — Thomas Wolfe

22. “Perhaps this is our strange and haunting paradox here in America—that we are fixed and certain only when we are in movement.” — Thomas Wolfe

23. “America – it is a fabulous country, the only fabulous country; it is the only place where miracles not only happen but where they happen all the time.” — Thomas Wolfe

24. “All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travelers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.” — Thomas Wolfe

25. “[Death is] to lose the earth you know for greater knowing; to lose the life you have, for greater life; to leave the friends you loved, for greater loving; to find a land more kind than home, more large than earth.” — Thomas Wolfe 

Thomas Wolfe’s Writing Career

Wolfe traveled abroad and met many people, and those people and experiences contributed to his many short stories and his four full novels.

His ability to mix poetry, fiction, and original writing made him unique and led William Faulkner to say that Wolfe may have been the most talented writer of his generation.

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