“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. …Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?”
"Emily Webb"
Our Town (1938)
Context: I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back — up the hill — to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.... Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?... I'm ready to go back... I should have listened to you. That's all human beings are! Just blind people.
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Thornton Wilder 61
American playwright and novelist 1897–1975Related quotes
From his interview in The Guardian newspaper, 20th September 2008
Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution (2009)
“You can live your whole life not realizing that what you're looking for is right in front of you.”
Variant: You can live your whole life not realising that what you're looking for is right in front of you.
Source: One Day
“Every living being on earth loves life above all else.”
The Unity of Religious Ideals, Part I : Seeking for the Ideal
The Spiritual Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan
Context: Every living being on earth loves life above all else. The smallest insect, whose life lasts only an instant, tries to escape from any danger in order to live a moment longer. And the desire to live is most developed in man.