Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by James A. Michener (American Novelist)

James Albert Michener (1907–97) was an American author of more than 40 books, the majority of which were fictional, lengthy family sagas covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating solid history. Michener was known for the popularity of his works; he had numerous bestsellers and works selected for Book of the Month Club. He was also known for his meticulous research behind the books.

Source: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) READ: Works by James A. Michener

The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
James A. Michener
Topics: Realism, Dreams

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
James A. Michener
Topics: Character

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.
James A. Michener
Topics: Writing

All I can do is play the game the way the cards fall.
James A. Michener

The arrogance of the artist is a very profound thing, and it fortifies you.
James A. Michener

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.
James A. Michener
Topics: Travel

When this is over, I’m not going to be the same guy. I’m going to live as if I were a great man.
James A. Michener

I am a humanist because I think humanity can, with constant moral guidance, create reasonably decent societies. I think that young people who want to understand the world can profit from the works of Plato and Socrates, the behaviour of the three Thomases, Aquinas, More and Jefferson – the austere analyses of Immanuel Kant and the political leadership of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.
James A. Michener
Topics: Humanity

I am always interested in why young people become writers, and from talking with many I have concluded that most do not want to be writers working eight and ten hours a day and accomplishing little; they want to have been writers, garnering the rewards of having completed a best-seller. They aspire to the rewards of writing but not to the travail.
James A. Michener
Topics: Writers, Authors & Writing, Writing

The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him, he’s always doing both.
James A. Michener
Topics: Motivational, Excellence

You have to be eligible for luck to strike, and I think that’s a matter of education and preparation, and character and all the other solid attributes that sometimes people laugh at.
James A. Michener
Topics: Fortune, Luck

I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.
James A. Michener
Topics: Writers, Writing, Authors & Writing

An age is called “dark,” not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.
James A. Michener
Topics: Knowledge, Light

Although most of us know Vincent van Gogh in Arles and Paul Gauguin in Tahiti as if they were neighbors—somewhat disreputable but endlessly fascinating—none of us can name two French generals or department store owners of that period. I take enormous pride in considering myself an artist, one of the necessaries.
James A. Michener
Topics: Writers, Authors & Writing, Writing

It takes courage to know when you ought to be afraid.
James A. Michener
Topics: Courage

I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.
James A. Michener
Topics: Writing

If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.
James A. Michener
Topics: Dignity, Self-Discovery

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