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Top 25 Owen Wister Quotes (2025 Update)

Owen Wister Quote: “Said Aristotle unto Plato, ‘Have another sweet potato?’ Said Plato unto Aristotle, ‘Thank you, I prefer the bottle.’”

1. “Said Aristotle unto Plato, ‘Have another sweet potato?’ Said Plato unto Aristotle, ‘Thank you, I prefer the bottle.’”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Forgive my asking you to use your mind. It is a thing which no novelist should expect of his reader...”

2. “Forgive my asking you to use your mind. It is a thing which no novelist should expect of his reader...”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “When you can’t have what you choose, you just choose what you have.”

3. “When you can’t have what you choose, you just choose what you have.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “An aristocrat in morals as in mind.”

4. “An aristocrat in morals as in mind.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “When a man ain’t got no ideas of his own, he’d ought to be kind o’ careful who he borrows ’em from.”

5. “When a man ain’t got no ideas of his own, he’d ought to be kind o’ careful who he borrows ’em from.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Providence makes use of instruments I’d not touch with a ten-foot pole.”

6. “Providence makes use of instruments I’d not touch with a ten-foot pole.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “All America is divided into two classes – the quality and the equality. The latter will always recognize the former when mistaken for it.”

7. “All America is divided into two classes – the quality and the equality. The latter will always recognize the former when mistaken for it.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “I thought there should in truth be heavy damages for malpractice on human souls.”

8. “I thought there should in truth be heavy damages for malpractice on human souls.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “He looked pleased. “I reckon,” he said, “I couldn’t be so good if I wasn’t bad onced in a while.”

9. “He looked pleased. “I reckon,” he said, “I couldn’t be so good if I wasn’t bad onced in a while.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “But no earthly foot can step between a man and his destiny.”

10. “But no earthly foot can step between a man and his destiny.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “But this I can say: to call any act evil, instantly begs the question. Many an act that man does is right or wrong according to the time and place which form, so to speak, its context; strip it of its surrounding circumstances, and you tear away its meaning.”

11. “But this I can say: to call any act evil, instantly begs the question. Many an act that man does is right or wrong according to the time and place which form, so to speak, its context; strip it of its surrounding circumstances, and you tear away its meaning.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “When you call me that, smile.”

12. “When you call me that, smile.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “When a man is kind to dumb animals, I always say he has got some good in him.”

13. “When a man is kind to dumb animals, I always say he has got some good in him.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Stand on your laigs you polecat, and admit you’re a liar!”

14. “Stand on your laigs you polecat, and admit you’re a liar!”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “The creature we call a GENTLEMAN lies deep in the hearts of thousands that are born without chance to master the outward graces of the type.”

15. “The creature we call a GENTLEMAN lies deep in the hearts of thousands that are born without chance to master the outward graces of the type.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Many an act that man does is right or wrong according to the time and place which form, so to speak, its context; strip it of its surrounding circumstances, and you tear away its meaning. Gentlemen reformers, beware of this common practice of yours! Beware of calling an act evil on Tuesday because that same act was evil on Monday!”

16. “Many an act that man does is right or wrong according to the time and place which form, so to speak, its context; strip it of its surrounding circumstances, and you tear away its meaning. Gentlemen reformers, beware of this common practice of yours! Beware of calling an act evil on Tuesday because that same act was evil on Monday!”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Often when I have camped here, it has made me want to become the ground, become the water, become the trees, mix with the whole thing. Not know myself from it. Never unmix again.”

17. “Often when I have camped here, it has made me want to become the ground, become the water, become the trees, mix with the whole thing. Not know myself from it. Never unmix again.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “We all know what birds of a feather do. And it may be safely surmised that if a bird of any particular feather has been for a long while unable to see other birds of its kind, it will flock with them all the more assiduously when they happen to alight in its vicinity.”

18. “We all know what birds of a feather do. And it may be safely surmised that if a bird of any particular feather has been for a long while unable to see other birds of its kind, it will flock with them all the more assiduously when they happen to alight in its vicinity.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “For out of the eyes of every stranger looks either a friend or an enemy, waiting to be known.”

19. “For out of the eyes of every stranger looks either a friend or an enemy, waiting to be known.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “It was neither preaching nor praying that made a better man of me, but one or two people who believed in me better than I deserved, and I hated to disappoint them.”

20. “It was neither preaching nor praying that made a better man of me, but one or two people who believed in me better than I deserved, and I hated to disappoint them.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “I reckon some parsons have a right to tell you to be good. The bishop of this hyeh territory has a right. But I’ll tell yu’ this: a middlin’ doctor is a pore thing, and a middlin’ lawyer is a pore thing; but keep me from a middlin’ man of God.”

21. “I reckon some parsons have a right to tell you to be good. The bishop of this hyeh territory has a right. But I’ll tell yu’ this: a middlin’ doctor is a pore thing, and a middlin’ lawyer is a pore thing; but keep me from a middlin’ man of God.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “It may be that them whose pleasure brings you into this world owes you a living, but it don’t mean the world is responsible.”

22. “It may be that them whose pleasure brings you into this world owes you a living, but it don’t mean the world is responsible.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Go on so! I don’t reckon yu’ know what you’re sayin’. Yu’ might as well ask fruit to stay green. If the way we are now can keep bein’ enough for you, it can’t for me. A pleasure to you, is it? Well, to me it is – I don’t know what to call it. I come to yu’ and I hate it, and I come again and I hate it, and I ache and grieve all over when I go. No! You will have to think of some other way than just invitin’ me to keep green.”

23. “Go on so! I don’t reckon yu’ know what you’re sayin’. Yu’ might as well ask fruit to stay green. If the way we are now can keep bein’ enough for you, it can’t for me. A pleasure to you, is it? Well, to me it is – I don’t know what to call it. I come to yu’ and I hate it, and I come again and I hate it, and I ache and grieve all over when I go. No! You will have to think of some other way than just invitin’ me to keep green.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “You are speakin’ low like me,” he answered. “But we have no dream we can wake from.”

24. “You are speakin’ low like me,” he answered. “But we have no dream we can wake from.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Dr. MacBride had a manner of saying “pardon me,” which rendered forgiveness well-nigh impossible.”

25. “Dr. MacBride had a manner of saying “pardon me,” which rendered forgiveness well-nigh impossible.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Has any botanist set down what the seed of love is? Has it anywhere been set down in how many ways this seed may be sown? In what various vessels of gossamer it can float across wide spaces? Or upon what different soils it can fall, and live unknown, and bide its time for blooming?”

26. “Has any botanist set down what the seed of love is? Has it anywhere been set down in how many ways this seed may be sown? In what various vessels of gossamer it can float across wide spaces? Or upon what different soils it can fall, and live unknown, and bide its time for blooming?”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “Well, he took dying as naturally as he took living. Like a man should. Like I hope to.” Again he looked at the pictures in his mind. “No play-acting nor last words. He just told good-by to the boys as we led his horse under the limb.”

27. “Well, he took dying as naturally as he took living. Like a man should. Like I hope to.” Again he looked at the pictures in his mind. “No play-acting nor last words. He just told good-by to the boys as we led his horse under the limb.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “In the United States ‘First’ and ‘Second’ class can’t be painted on railroad cars, for all passengers, being Americans, are equal and it would be ‘unAmerican.’ But paint ‘Pullman’ on a car and everyone is satisfied.”

28. “In the United States ‘First’ and ‘Second’ class can’t be painted on railroad cars, for all passengers, being Americans, are equal and it would be ‘unAmerican.’ But paint ‘Pullman’ on a car and everyone is satisfied.”

— Owen Wister

Owen Wister Quote: “In no company had I ever felt so much an outsider. Yet I liked the company, and wished that it would like me.”

29. “In no company had I ever felt so much an outsider. Yet I liked the company, and wished that it would like me.”

— Owen Wister

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