Mark Helprin Quotes

Lower [plane] than one of those who perished. It was their war, not mine. I was able to walk out of it, leave it behind. Though God preserved me, the best stories were theirs, and these were cut short...

Because two propositions can be true at once, he said. Because the world is imperfect. Because we are imperfect. Because sometimes we're called upon to do terrible things. And because we define oursel...

What a place to put a city, right on the front line of absolute zero. No wonder a cow burned it down.

Souls are complicated things.

I suppose that's because you have faith in the judicial system that will try us. Yes. I have faith that we will be found guilty and that we will be shot. Your faith will be rewarded. Why? It hasn't be...

There are times for sleep, for inactivity, dreaming, indiscipline, even lethargy. You’ll know when you deserve these times. They come after you’ve been broken. I’m speaking of a helpless, tranquil sta...

Adversity has its compensations, that in falling, and in failing, we rise. It is as if there is a hand behind us that sets to right all imbalances. Why do you think the saints seldom had the temporal...

The mind, you see, is like a muscle. For it to remain agile and strong, it must work.

All great discoveries...are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents.

When I was in school, Strassnitzky said, I went out one morning in my riding clothes and shod in heavy boots, and as I left the last step I came down on a young bird that had been resting at the foot...

As powerful a figure as this man was, still, he was more vulnerable than the slight little girl next to Alessandro. Even Alessandro knew, even at this moment, that the world had worn down the attorney...

I'm not afraid, Rafi said. Why not? If I die tomorrow it will have been useless to have been afraid today.

People in my constituency are starving and born with sixteen fingers. Did you ever eat weasel shish-kebob? Freddy doesn’t walk by the side of the motorways to gather dandelions for his salad, but the...

[When] he's here, he's always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think he's crazy...Don't tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dan...

It was easy to be clever, but hard to look into the face of God, who is found not so much by cleverness as by stillness.

You can come back, his father had said. Why leave if I'll come back? Alessandro had asked, and then had quoted Horace. 'New skies the exile finds, but the heart is still the same.

For the first time in his life, he felt exactly what he was, and he was not impressed.

You’re always condemned to die. It’s just a matter of timing.

For what can be imagined more beautiful than the sight of a perfectly just city rejoicing in justice alone.

You don't want to be content with yourself. People who are, are insufferable, the walking dead. But you don't want to be entirely driven, either, because then you just skate over the world and never t...