Pearl S. Buck Quotes
American - Novelist June 6, 1892 - March 6, 1973


A good marriage is one which allows for change and growth in the individuals and in the way they express their love.
Pearl S. Buck

Love alone could waken love.
Pearl S. Buck

To find joy in work is to discover the fountain of youth.
Pearl S. Buck

Some are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.
Pearl S. Buck

Self-expression must pass into communication for its fulfillment.
Pearl S. Buck

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.
Pearl S. Buck

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
Pearl S. Buck

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.
Pearl S. Buck

I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.
Pearl S. Buck

Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame.
Pearl S. Buck

Love dies only when growth stops.
Pearl S. Buck

Nothing in life is as good as the marriage of true minds between man and woman. As good? It is life itself.
Pearl S. Buck

Inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that is where I renew my springs that never dry up.
Pearl S. Buck

One faces the future with one's past.
Pearl S. Buck

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.
Pearl S. Buck

Chinese are wise in comprehending without many words what is inevitable and inescapable and therefore only to be borne.
Pearl S. Buck

The basic discovery about any people is the discovery of the relationship between men and women.
Pearl S. Buck

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.
Pearl S. Buck

You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.
Pearl S. Buck

Race prejudice is not only a shadow over the colored it is a shadow over all of us, and the shadow is darkest over those who feel it least and allow its evil effects to go on.
Pearl S. Buck

To serve is beautiful, but only if it is done with joy and a whole heart and a free mind.
Pearl S. Buck

You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.
Pearl S. Buck

When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.
Pearl S. Buck

Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then; life is dull without it.
Pearl S. Buck

If our American way of life fails the child, it fails us all.
Pearl S. Buck

To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death.
Pearl S. Buck

Hunger makes a thief of any man.
Pearl S. Buck

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.
Pearl S. Buck

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.
Pearl S. Buck

Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.
Pearl S. Buck