55 Meaningful Quotes by Arthur Miller

Last updated on Oct 18th, 2022

55 Meaningful Quotes by Arthur Miller

Arthur Asher Miller (born October 17, 1915, New York, New York, U.S. – died February 10, 2005, Roxbury, Connecticut, U.S.) was an American playwright, essayist, and screenwriter.

Miller’s most prominent plays are All My Sons (published in 1947; adapted for film in 1948), The Crucible (1953; adapted for film in 1996), A View from the Bridge (1955), and After the Fall (1964).

The play Death of a Salesman (1949; adapted for film in 1985) is one of the most famous American dramas of the 20th century. It won a Tony Award for best play and a Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Miller also wrote several screenplays, most notably The Misfits (1961).

His second wife was the actress Marilyn Monroe. They were married from 1956 to 1961.

Why is betrayal the only truth that sticks? - Arthur Miller (After the Fall 1964 Quotes)
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Why is betrayal the only truth that sticks?After the Fall (1964), Act II, Page 76

Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven. - Arthur Miller (The Crucible 1953 Quotes)
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Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.The Crucible (1953), Act II, Page 71

The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you're a salesman, and you don't know that. - Arthur Miller (Death Of A Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman, and you don’t know that.Death Of A Salesman (1949), Act II, Page 97

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets. - Arthur Miller (The Ride Down Mt. Morgan 1991 Quotes)
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Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991), Act I, Page 18

A child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back. - Arthur Miller (The Crucible 1953 Quotes)
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A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.The Crucible (1953), Act I, Page 27

The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost. - Arthur Miller (Shadows of the Gods Quotes)
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The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.Shadows of the Gods, in Harper's Magazine (August 1958), Vol. 217, No. 1299, Page 37

Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it. - Arthur Miller (Death Of A Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there’s nobody to live in it.Death Of A Salesman (1949), Act I, Page 15

A little man makes a mistake and they hang him by the thumbs, the big ones become ambassadors. - Arthur Miller (All My Sons 1947 Quotes)
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A little man makes a mistake and they hang him by the thumbs, the big ones become ambassadors.All My Sons (1947), Act II, Page 60

I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside one's self. - Arthur Miller (After the Fall 1964 Quotes)
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I think it’s a mistake to ever look for hope outside one’s self.After the Fall (1964), Act I, Page 21

The jungle is dark but full of diamonds. - Arthur Miller (Death Of A Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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The jungle is dark but full of diamonds.Death of a Salesman (1949), Act II, Page 134

You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away. - Arthur Miller (A View from the Bridge Quotes)
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You can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.A View from the Bridge (ed. 1957), Act I, Page 16

A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from. And by those he has walked away from that cause him remorse. - Arthur Miller (Timebends: A Life Quotes)
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A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from. And by those he has walked away from that cause him remorse.Timebends: A Life (1987), Page 367

Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. - Arthur Miller (The Crucible 1953 Quotes)
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Cleave to no faith when faith brings blood.The Crucible (1953), Act III, Page 133

Be liked and you will never want. - Arthur Miller (Death Of A Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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Be liked and you will never want.Death of a Salesman (1949), Act I, Page 33

Down deep in His heart God is a comedian who loves to make us laugh. - Arthur Miller (Timebends: A Life Quotes)
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Down deep in His heart God is a comedian who loves to make us laugh.Timebends: A Life (1987), Page 591

There are certain men in the world who rather see everybody hung before they'll take blame. - Arthur Miller (All My Sons 1947 Quotes)
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There are certain men in the world who rather see everybody hung before they’ll take blame.All My Sons (1947), Act III, Page 61

The world is an oyster, but you don't crack it open on a mattress! - Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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The world is an oyster, but you don’t crack it open on a mattress!Death Of A Salesman (1949), Act I, Page 41

Can one ever remember love? It's like trying to summon up the smell of roses in a cellar. You might see a rose, but never the perfume. - Arthur Miller (After the Fall 1964 Quotes)
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Can one ever remember love? It’s like trying to summon up the smell of roses in a cellar. You might see a rose, but never the perfume.After the Fall (1964), Act II, Page 86

There are certain people, y'know, the sicker they get the longer they live. - Arthur Miller (All My Sons 1947 Quotes)
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There are certain people, y’know, the sicker they get the longer they live.All My Sons (1947), Act II, Page 38

Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money. - Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money.Death of a Salesman (1949), Act I, Page 65

The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The best work that anybody ever writes is the work that is on the verge of embarrassing him, always.Psychology and Arthur Miller by Richard Isadore Evans (1969), Part II. The Writer and Psychology, Page 73

A man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime. - Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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A man is not a bird, to come and go with the springtime.Death Of A Salesman (1949), Act I, Page 54

A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.The Observer, London (November 26, 1961)

The theater is so endlessly fascinating - because it's so accidental. It's so much like life. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The theater is so endlessly fascinating – because it’s so accidental. It’s so much like life.Arthur Miller: View of a Life by Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times (May 9, 1984)

You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit! - Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit!]Death of a Salesman (1949), Act II, Page 82

You don't realize how people can hate, they can hate so much they'll tear the world to pieces. - Arthur Miller (All My Sons 1947 Quotes)
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You don’t realize how people can hate, they can hate so much they’ll tear the world to pieces.All My Sons (1947), Act II, Page 38

You know, a playwright lives in an occupied country. He's the enemy. And if you can't live that way you don't stay. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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You know, a playwright lives in an occupied country. He’s the enemy. And if you can’t live that way you don’t stay.Why Write for the Theater? A Roundtable Report, The New York Times (February 9, 1986)

The enemy is within, and within stays within, and we can't get out of within. It's always on the edge of our minds that behind what we see is a nefarious plot. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The enemy is within, and within stays within, and we can’t get out of within. It’s always on the edge of our minds that behind what we see is a nefarious plot.The Demons of Salem, With Us Still by Victory Navasky, The New York Times (September 8, 1996)

The closer a man approaches tragedy the more intense is his concentration of emotion upon the fixed point of his commitment, which is to say the closer he approaches what in life we call fanaticism. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The closer a man approaches tragedy the more intense is his concentration of emotion upon the fixed point of his commitment, which is to say the closer he approaches what in life we call fanaticism.Arthur Miller's Collected Plays: With an Introduction (1957), Introduction to the Collected Plays, Page 7

If you love your country why is it necessary to hate other countries? - Arthur Miller (Incident at Vichy: A Play 1965 Quotes)
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If you love your country why is it necessary to hate other countries?Incident at Vichy: A Play (1965), Page 39

I like to keep abreast of my ignorance. - Arthur Miller (All My Sons 1947 Quotes)
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I like to keep abreast of my ignorance.All My Sons (1947), Act I, Page 7

Success, instead of giving freedom of choice, becomes a way of life. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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Success, instead of giving freedom of choice, becomes a way of life.Conversations with Arthur Miller (1987), The Art of the Theatre II: Arthur Miller, an Interview by Olga Carlisle and Rose Styron (Paris Review, 1966), Page 99

What is the most innocent place in any country? Is it not the insane asylum? These people drift through life truly innocent, unable to see into themselves at all. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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What is the most innocent place in any country? Is it not the insane asylum? These people drift through life truly innocent, unable to see into themselves at all.With respect for her agony - but with love by Arthur Miller, Life, (February 7, 1964), Page 66

Without alienation, there can be no politics. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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Without alienation, there can be no politics.A Miller's Tale by Eric Hobsbawm, Marxism Today (January 1989), Page 42

Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You'll never get out of the jungle that way. - Arthur Miller (Death Of A Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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Never fight fair with a stranger, boy. You’ll never get out of the jungle that way.Death Of A Salesman (1949), Act I, Page 49

Life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. - Arthur Miller (The Crucible 1953 Quotes)
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Life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.The Crucible (1953), Act IV, Page 133

We used to shoot a man who acted like a dog, but honor was real there, you were protecting something. But here? This is the land of the great big dogs, you don't love a man here, you eat him! That's the principle; the only one we live by. - Arthur Miller (All My Sons 1947 Quotes)
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We used to shoot a man who acted like a dog, but honor was real there, you were protecting something. But here? This is the land of the great big dogs, you don’t love a man here, you eat him! That’s the principle; the only one we live by.All My Sons (1947), Act III, Page 78

The very impulse to write, I think, springs from an inner chaos crying for order, for meaning, and that meaning must be discovered in the process of writing or the work lies dead as it is finished. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The very impulse to write, I think, springs from an inner chaos crying for order, for meaning, and that meaning must be discovered in the process of writing or the work lies dead as it is finished.Arthur Miller's Collected Plays: With an Introduction (1957), Introduction to the Collected Plays, Page 38

If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp... The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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If you complain of people being shot down in the streets, of the absence of communication or social responsibility, of the rise of everyday violence which people have become accustomed to, and the dehumanization of feelings, then the ultimate development on an organized social level is the concentration camp… The concentration camp is the final expression of human separateness and its ultimate consequence.Conversations with Arthur Miller (1987), The Art of the Theatre II: Arthur Miller, an Interview by Olga Carlisle and Rose Styron (Paris Review, 1966), Page 108

The need of man to wholly realize himself is the only fixed star. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The need of man to wholly realize himself is the only fixed star.Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller, in The New York Times (February 27, 1949)

Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now. - Arthur Miller (The Crucible 1953 Quotes)
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Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now.The Crucible (1953), Act II, Page 81

The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.Foreword, in After the Fall, Saturady Evening Post (February 1, 1964)

One had the right to write because other people needed news of the inner world, and if they went too long without such news they would go mad with the chaos of their lives. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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One had the right to write because other people needed news of the inner world, and if they went too long without such news they would go mad with the chaos of their lives.Shadows of the Gods, in Harper's Magazine (August 1958), Vol. 217, No. 1299, Page 37

Memory inevitably romanticizes, pressing reality to recede like pain. - Arthur Miller (Timebends: A Life 1987 Quotes)
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Memory inevitably romanticizes, pressing reality to recede like pain.Timebends: A Life (1987), Page 179

Where choice begins. Paradise ends. Innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action? - Arthur Miller Quotes
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Where choice begins. Paradise ends. Innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action?Foreword, in After the Fall, Saturady Evening Post (February 1, 1964)

I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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I think the tragic feeling is evoked in us when we are in the presence of a character who is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing-his sense of personal dignity.Tragedy and the Common Man by Arthur Miller, in The New York Times (February 27, 1949)

And of course the time comes when you realize that you haven't merely been specializing in something - something has been specializing in you. - Arthur Miller (The Price 1968 Quotes)
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And of course the time comes when you realize that you haven’t merely been specializing in something – something has been specializing in you.The Price (1968), Act II, Page 81

A suicide kills two people, that's what it's for! - Arthur Miller (After the Fall 1964 Quotes)
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A suicide kills two people, that’s what it’s for!After the Fall (1964), Act II, Page 104

Theater is a very changeable art. It responds to the moment in history the way the newspaper does, and there's no predicting what to come up with next. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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Theater is a very changeable art. It responds to the moment in history the way the newspaper does, and there’s no predicting what to come up with next.A Conversation with Arthur Miller by Chairman William R. Ferris, Humanities (March-April 2001) Vol. 22, No. 2, Page 43

Certainly the most diverse, if minor, pastimes of literary life is the game of Find the Author. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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Certainly the most diverse, if minor, pastimes of literary life is the game of Find the Author.With respect for her agony - but with love by Arthur Miller, Life, (February 7, 1964), Page 66

When the government goes into the business of destroying trust, it goes into the business of destroying itself. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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When the government goes into the business of destroying trust, it goes into the business of destroying itself.Conversations with Arthur Miller (1987), An Interview with Arthur Miller by Matthew C. Roudané (Michigan Quarterly Review 24, 1985), Page 364

People do look to others for some leadership, and it's not bad for them to supply it when they feel that way. - Arthur Miller Quotes
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People do look to others for some leadership, and it’s not bad for them to supply it when they feel that way.A Conversation with Arthur Miller by Chairman William R. Ferris, Humanities (March-April 2001) Vol. 22, No. 2, Page 43

A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. - Arthur Miller (The Crucible 1953 Quotes)
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A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.The Crucible (1953), Act I, Page 35

After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive. - Arthur Miller (Death Of A Salesman 1949 Quotes)
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After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.Death Of A Salesman (1949), Act II, Page 98

Everything we are is at every moment alive in us. - Arthur Miller (Timebends: A Life 1987 Quotes)
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Everything we are is at every moment alive in us.Timebends: A Life (1987), Page 131