Mark Helprin Quotes

Though it would take a long time for him to understand the principle, it was that to be paid for one's joy is to steal.

Truth is not anchored to the ground by driven piles. It can float and take to the air; it is light and lovely and delicate. It is feminine as well as masculine. It is often gentle, and sometimes it ca...

We have been so enthusiastic in our welcome as to be obsequious—to machines.

Whatever is, is, and whatever is not, is not

To be paid for one's joy is to steal.

A benevolent act is like a locust: it sleeps until it is called.

A horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music.

Alessandro, his father said, almost cheerfully. You don't understand. This kind of problem is very special: it has no solution

All great discoveries, the elder Marratta had once said, are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents. At

All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought together; the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden dimness co...

As long as you have life and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you have stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe....

Civilians seldom understand that soldiers, once impressed into war, will forever take it for the ordinary state of the world, with all else illusion. The former soldier assumes that when time weakens...

Don’t worry about me, no matter what happens. We’re nervous here, but not afraid. We have all looked into our souls, one way or another, and are content to die if need be. The only thing left to say i...

Evidently, rigging cables is therapy for the Swiss: or part of their theology. What was it that he used to say? A balanced arc between mountain rows / as servant to his master shows / the power of bes...

I found him. It was easy. The Church always seems to know where its priests are, even when they're traveling. He remembered me. His hair had turned almost all gray, but he still had his kindly, hesita...

Many times, his father had taken him to read them, insisting that they were the most important things he could have, and implying with a sharp dismissive gesture of hand and arm that wealth, fame, and...

Mortification of the flesh. Nicolò drew back almost imperceptibly. What do you think we just did? Alessandro asked. This walk, for days and nights in the open air, without sleep, under sun, moon, and...

No, De Roos said. You mustn't thank me. The relatives of patients thank the physician as if the physician were God. It's no good, and if the patient dies it turns to ash—not just for them, but, as you...

Peter Lake had no illusions about mortality. He knew that it made everyone perfectly equal, and that the treasures of the earth were movement, courage, laughter, and love. The wealthy could not buy th...

Such a thing as the child left alone to die in the hallway was unknown on the marsh. But here, in the dawn, was mortality itself. In the city were places to fall from which one could never emerge -- d...