17 Quotes by Charles W. Chesnutt

As man sows, so shall he reap. In works of fiction, such men are sometimes converted. More often, in real life, they do not change their natures until they are converted into dust.

The workings of the human heart are the profoundest mystery of the universe. One moment they make us despair of our kind, and the next we see in them the reflection of the divine image.

Out of what trifles grow the tragedies of life.

Impossibilities are merely things of which we have not learned, or which we do not wish to happen.

Those that set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards.

Sins, like chickens, come home to roost.

Selfishness is the most constant of human motives. Patriotism, humanity, or the love of God may lead to sporadic outbursts sweep away the heaped-up wrongs of centuries; but they languish at times, while the love of self works on ceaselessly, unwearyingly,burrowing always at the very root of life, and heaping up fresh wrongs for other centuries to sweep away.

We make our customs lightly; once made, like our sins, they grip us in bands of steel; we become the creatures of our creation.

There are sordid souls that eat and drink and breed and die, and imagine they have lived.