Quotes and anectdotes from the wise to the foolish, and the courageous to the drunk

Gertrude Stein Writer

  • Gender: Female
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: Feb 3, 1874
  • Died: Jul 27, 1946

Gertrude Stein was an American writer of novels, poetry and plays. Born in West Allegheny, Pennsylvania and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris in 1903, making France her home for the remainder of her life. A literary innovator and pioneer of Modernist literature, Stein’s work broke with the narrative, linear, and temporal conventions of 19th-century. She was also known as a collector of Modernist art.

In 1933, Stein published a kind of memoir of her Paris years, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, written in the voice of Toklas, her life partner. The book became a literary bestseller and vaulted Stein from the relative obscurity of cult literary figure into the light of mainstream attention.

It is extraordinary that when you are acquainted with a whole family you can forget about them. family

We are always the same age inside. age

A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears. art

I could undertake to be an efficient pupil if it were possible to find an efficient teacher. teacher

A real failure does not need an excuse. It is an end in itself. failure

What is music. A passion for colonies not a love of country. music

There ain't no answer. There ain't gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer. politics

Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. technology

It is the soothing thing about history that it does repeat itself. history

It is very easy to love alone. alone & love

It is natural to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes to that siren until she allures us to our death. death & hope

Before the flowers of friendship faded friendship faded. friendship

I have declared that patience is never more than patient. I too have declared, that I who am not patient am patient. patience

Nature is commonplace. Imitation is more interesting. nature

Men cannot count, they do not know that two and two make four if women do not tell them so. women

When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. After all, human beings are like that. alone

It is awfully important to know what is and what is not your business. business

Romance is everything. romantic

There is too much fathering going on just now and there is no doubt about it fathers are depressing. dad

Every adolescent has that dream every century has that dream every revolutionary has that dream, to destroy the family. family

War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost. war

Counting is the religion of this generation it is its hope and its salvation. hope & religion

This is the lesson that history teaches: repetition. history

Very likely education does not make very much difference. education

Money is always there but the pockets change it is not in the same pockets after a change, and that is all there is to say about money. change & money

An audience is always warming but it must never be necessary to your work. work

The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not. science

History takes time. History makes memory. history

I know what Germans are. They are a funny people. They are always choosing someone to lead them in a direction which they do not want to go. funny

The thing that differentiates man from animals is money. money

Poetry consists in a rhyming dictionary and things seen. poetry