Gertrude Stein Quotes

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

Gertrude Stein (Reflections on the Atom Bomb, 1946)

A masterpiece... may be unwelcome but it is never dull.

Gertrude Stein (What are Masterpieces, 1936)

Considering how dangerous everything is, nothing is really very frightening.

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

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.

Gertrude Stein (As Fine As Melanctha, 1914 - 1930)

I rarely believe anything, because at the time of believing I am not really there to believe.

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

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

Gertrude Stein (What is English Literature, 1935)

We are always the same age inside.

Gertrude Stein (Quoted in The American Treasury, 1955)

It is very easy to love alone.

Gertrude Stein (Quoted in Last Operas and Plays, 1949)

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.

Gertrude Stein (Wars I Have Seen, 1945)

Disillusionment in living is finding that no one can really ever be agreeing with you completely in anything.

Gertrude Stein (The Making of Americans, 1925)

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

Gertrude Stein (Wars I Have Seen, 1945)

What is the answer?.. In that case, what is the question?

Gertrude Stein (Stein's Last Words Quoted in What Is Remembered, 1963)

Generally speaking, everyone is more interesting doing nothing than doing anything.

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

Suppose no one asked a question, what would be the answer.

Gertrude Stein (Useful Knowledge, 1928)

It takes a lot of time to be a genius. You have to sit around so much, doing nothing, really doing nothing.

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

Let me listen to me and not to them.

Gertrude Stein (Stanzas in Meditation, 1932)

One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come. 

Gertrude Stein

One does not get better but different and older and that is always a pleasure.

Gertrude Stein (Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)

I do want to get rich but I never want to do what there is to do to get rich.

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

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

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

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

Gertrude Stein (Quoted in Four in America, 1947)

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

Gertrude Stein (Brewsie and Willie, 1946)

I've been rich and I've been poor. It's better to be rich.

Gertrude Stein

Silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone. 

Gertrude Stein

It is always a mistake to be plain-spoken. 

Gertrude Stein

Understanding and believing are not the same thing.

Gertrude Stein (Everybody's Autobiography, 1937)

Men and girls, men and girls: Artificial swine and pearls. 

Gertrude Stein

War is never fatal but always lost. Always lost.

Gertrude Stein (Wars I Have Seen, 1945)

One must dare to be happy. 

Gertrude Stein

The thing that differentiates man from animals is money.

Gertrude Stein (How Writing is Written, 1974)

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