Although still a young country at 241 years old, America has wasted no time imprinting its trademark on the minds of those living in it and around the world. Widely perceived as the zenith of commerce, scientific innovation, and culture, the United States has transformed from a mere colony into a heartland defined by groundbreaking discoveries, revolutionary practices in growing industry, and art. In particular, the latter of these aspects arguably bears the largest responsibility in mythologizing America into the "the Utopia on Earth" it was originally conceived of.
From Academy Award winning movies, to weekly cable programming, no canon has powered the American artscape more than it literary canon. From the observational, sublime yearnings of Washington Irving and Ralph Waldo Emerson, to the modernistic tour de forces of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, the works of American Novelists have cemented themselves among the highest echelons of renown. Their publications forever remembered for the stories told, but some, merely for the lines spoken.
1. "The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong in the broken places." - Ernest Hemingway
A man who championed, and epitomized grace and courage, Ernest Hemingway also knew that both were not possible without persistence against a dangerous and cruel world that never left its inhabitants in once piece.
2. "I do not believe will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among all creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance." - William Faulkner
This line, delivered with masterful conviction and power, was part of a speech William Faulkner gave upon accepting his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 which proved to be a magnum opus as was never heard before. Addressing a world plunged into great anxiety and uncertainty at the onset of the Cold War, the Mississippi native filled all those who tuned in with a hope that the greater good would not only persevere, but prevail.
3. "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until its faced." - James Baldwin
As a homosexual, James Baldwin was one of the first American Authors to explicitly comment on race and sexuality in Western society. Exploring the crippling effects racism was having on the American fabric, there were many buried issues Baldwin brought to the forefront Americans were eventually forced to face.
4. "The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress." - Philip Roth
Known for his honest and forthright approach to prose, Philip Roth was never one to mince his words. Even when it came to his scathing atheism. Yet this line is a brilliant critique of America's obsession with perfection, as foregrounded by the nation's founding on Judeo-Christian values.
5. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." - Mark Twain
Clever without a fault, Mark Twain always found away to extract a tinge of wit and irony out of the simplest statement or idea.
6. “Sorrow comes in great waves...but rolls over us, and though it may almost smother us, it leaves us. And we know that if it is strong, we are stronger, inasmuch as it passes and we remain.” - Henry James
A man of many words when who took to pen and paper, Henry James often took his time when it came to making his point. Nevertheless, whenever he felt the need to speak, it was always done in a way that gentle and compassionate, almost fatherly -- the way many writers of his time and after perceived of him.
7. "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." - Edith Wharton
8. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. “Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” - Harper Lee
Being a woman born and raised in the Deep South is no small chore, given the place's tainted history concerning race, class and misogyny. Nevertheless, Harper Lee displayed exceptional mettle combating these issues, a fortitude captured in perhaps, one of the finest of her quotes in her Pulitzer Price winning classic "To Kill a Mockingbird".
10. “If you wanted to do something absolutely honest, something true, it always turned out to be a thing that had to be done alone.” - Richard Yates
One of the final lines in his most highly regarded work "Revolutionary Road", Richard Yates converts with unrestrained compassion, and honesty, that in a world defined by mass conformity, only you can be yourself. Only you. Thats it.
