Top 100 Edgar Rice Burroughs Quotes
#1. When I was a boy in the late 1950s, the public library refused to stock books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. They were regarded as vulgar, ill-written potboilers.
Michael Dirda
#2. I didn't read comic books, growing up. I was more of a science fiction/fantasy novel guy. I loved reading Edgar Rice Burroughs' 'Tarzan' and that kind of stuff.
Jesse L. Martin
#3. In 1911, Edgar Rice Burroughs, having failed at everything else, decided to write a novel. He was then in his mid-thirties, married with two children, barely supporting his family as the agent for a pencil-sharpener business.
Michael Dirda
#4. I sat with the grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs at the world premiere of 'Tarzan,' and at the end of the film, he was very happy. He told me that we were bringing 'Tarzan' to a whole new generation, and he was very grateful.
Kevin Lima
#5. P.G. Wodehouse was a huge influence on me when I was younger, as were Edgar Rice Burroughs and George Bernard Shaw.
Michael Moorcock
#6. As for the writers who have influenced me they are many. Hemingway, Chandler, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont, William Goldman, Flannery O'Conner, Carson McCullers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and so many others. As a kid Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard.
Joe R. Lansdale
#7. I wish I had more control, more like Edgar Rice Burroughs had, but I'm a realist, too. I work in television. I don't know that I would want to spend the rest of my life controlling my characters.
Gene Roddenberry
#8. In that little party there was not one who would desert another; yet we were of different countries, different colours, different races, different religions
and one of us was of a different world.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#9. It is always a foolish thing to contemplate suicide; for no matter how dark the future may appear today, tomorrow may hold for us that which will alter our whole life in an instant, revealing to us nothing but sunshine and happiness. So, for my part, I shall always wait for tomorrow.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#10. Whatever I may do to serve you will be prompted solely from selfish motives, since it gives me more pleasure to serve you than not.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#11. The path of the mighty beast was guided telepathically by the two people who sat in a huge saddle that was cinched to the thoat's broad back.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#12. If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#13. Captain Billings," he drawled finally, "if you will pardon my candor, I might remark that you are something of an ass, don't you know.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#14. Anger and hate against one we love steels our hearts, but contempt or pity leaves us silent and ashamed.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#15. Jane saw the little note and ignored it, for she was very angry and hurt and mortified, but - she was a woman, and so eventually she picked it up and read it. MY
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#17. Day had now given away to night and as we wandered along the great avenue lighted by the two moons of Barsoom, and with Earth looking down upon us out of her luminous green eye, it seemed that we were alone in the universe, and I, at least, was content that it should be so
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#18. His straight and perfect figure, muscled as the best of the ancient Roman gladiators must have been muscled, and yet with the soft and sinuous curves of a Greek god, told at a glance the wondrous combination of enormous strength with suppleness and speed.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#20. What--has O-Tar seen an ulsio and fainted?" demanded I-Gos with broad sarcasm.
"Men have died for less than that, ancient one," E-Thas reminded him.
"I am safe," retorted I-Gos, "for I am not a brave and popular son of the jeddak of Manator.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#21. There is much which I have left out; much which I have not dared to tell; but you will find the story of his second search for Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, even more remarkable than was his first
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#22. If I sometimes seem to take too great pride in my fighting ability, it must be remembered that fighting is my vocation.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#24. From a lofty perch Tarzan viewed the village of thatched huts across the intervening plantation.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#25. I loathed poverty and I would have liked to put my hands on the party who said that poverty is an honorable estate. It is an indication of inefficiency and nothing more. There is nothing honorable or fine about it.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#26. To me there always seems a way to gain the opposite side of an obstacle. If one cannot pass over it, or below it, or around it, why then there is but a single alternative left, and that is to pass through it.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#27. All he knew was that he could not eat the flesh of this black man, and thus hereditary instinct, ages old, usurped the functions of his untaught mind and saved him from transgressing a worldwide law of whose very existence he was ignorant.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#28. No human mother could have shown more unselfish and sacrificing devotion than did this poor, wild brute for the little orphaned waif whom fate had thrown into her keeping. At
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#30. Yes, I was a fool, but I was in love, and though I was suffering the greatest misery I had ever known I would not have had it otherwise for all the riches of Barsoom. Such is love, and such are lovers wherever love is known.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#31. I am a very old man. How old I do not know. It is possible I am a hundred, maybe more. I cannot tell because I have never aged as other men do.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#33. As much as I enjoy a fight, I cannot always indulge myself, and just now I had more weighty matters to occupy my time than spilling the blood of strange warriors.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#34. I had aimed at Mars and was about to hit Venus; unquestionably the all-time cosmic record for poor shots.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#35. how futile is man's poor, weak imagination by comparison with Nature's incredible genius. And
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#38. The whole fabric of our religion is based on superstitious belief in lies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those directly above us, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have us continue to believe as they wished us to believe.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#40. If people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines that I could write stories just as rotten.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#41. I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes, because, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts have placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many hours later.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#43. He was a mighty beast, mightily muscled, and the urge that has made males fight since the dawn of life on earth filled him with the blood-lust and the thirst to slay;
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#45. In absolute and general perfection lies stifling monotony and death. Nature must have contrasts; she must have shadows as well as highlights; sorrow with happiness; both wrong and right; and sin as well as virtue.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#47. The lion was quite close to him now - but a few paces intervened - he crouched, and then, with a deafening roar, he sprang.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#49. It must be that I am dreaming, and that I shall awaken in a moment to see that awful knife descending toward my heart- kiss me, dear, just once before I lose my dream forever.
-Jane-
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#50. THIS IS THE HOUSE OF TARZAN, THE KILLER OF BEASTS AND MANY BLACK MEN. DO NOT HARM THE THINGS WHICH ARE TARZAN'S. TARZAN WATCHES. TARZAN OF THE APES.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#51. It is strange how new and unexpected conditions bring out unguessed ability to meet them.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#52. I have discovered that the world over, unusual weather prevails at all times of the year.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#54. It was on the morning of the second day that the first link was forged in what was destined to form a chain of circumstances ending in a life for one then unborn such as has never been paralleled in the history of man.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#55. But life would be very miserable indeed were I to spend it in terror of the thing that has not yet happened.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#56. [..] it has remained for man alone among all creatures to kill senselessly and wantonly for the mere pleasure of inflicting suffering and death.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#57. For myself, I always assume that a lion is ferocious, and so I am never caught off my guard.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#58. I understand that you belittle all sentiments of generosity and kindness, but I do not, and I can convince your most doughty warrior that these characteristics are not incompatible with an ability to fight.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#59. P33- the wail of the living had answered the call of universal motherhood within her wild beast which the dead could not still.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#60. I fear that there is something more serious than accident here, Mr. Brently, said the captain.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#61. Later, Thuran also found it necessary to construct a similar primitive garment, so that, with their bare legs and heavily bearded faces, they looked not unlike reincarnations of two prehistoric progenitors of the human race. Thuran acted like one.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#62. She did not admire him any more than she had. It was merely that she considered him the Lesser of two evils.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#63. I wish to Heaven that I might forget. It would be so much easier than to go through life always remembering what might have been.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#66. The more one listens to ordinary conversations the more apparent it becomes that the reasoning faculties of the brain take little part in the direction of the vocal organs.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#68. As a matter of fact I presume I gave little attention to seeking an excuse, for I love a good fight too well to need any other reason for joining in when one is afoot. So
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#69. Your Paris is more dangerous than my savage jungles, Paul," concluded Tarzan,
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#73. I knew nothing about the technique of story writing, and now, after eighteen years of writing, I still know nothing about the technique, although with the publication of my new novel, "Tarzan and the Lost Empire", there are 31 books on my list.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#74. Men were indeed more foolish and more cruel than the beasts of the jungle! How fortunate was he who lived in the peace and security of the great forest!
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#77. With man it is different. When he comes many of the larger animals instinctively leave the district entirely, seldom if ever to return; and thus it has always been with the great anthropoids. They flee man as man flees a pestilence.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#78. If there be a fate that is sometimes cruel to me, there surely is a kind and merciful Providence which watches over me.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#79. Lives there upon any world such another as John Carter, Prince of Helium? Lives there another man who could fight his way back and forth across a warlike planet, facing savage beasts and hordes of savage men, for the love of a woman?
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#80. I could not blame them, for I knew how strong a hold a creed, however ridiculous it may be, may gain upon an otherwise intelligent people.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#81. The more one knows of one's religion the less one believes - no one living knows more of mine than I.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#82. It is quite simple, being nothing more than a radium generator diffusing radio-activity in all directions to a distance of a hundred yards or so from the flier. Should
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#83. I verily believe that a man's way with women is in inverse ratio to his prowess among men. The weakling and the saphead have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while the fighting man who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid, sits hiding in the shadows like some frightened child.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#84. So strong is the power of superstition that even though we know that we have been reverencing a sham, yet still we hesitate to admit the validity of our new-found convictions.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#85. A thousand times rather face the wild hordes of the dead sea bottoms than meet the eyes of this beautiful young girl and tell her the thing that I must tell her.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#86. When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled, and smiles are the foundation of beauty.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#87. P33- the son of an english lord and an english lady nursed at the breast of kala, the great ape.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#88. P 18 - Hundreds of thousands of years ago our ancestors of the dim and distant past faced the same problems which we must face in the same primeval forest. That we are here today evidences their victory.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#89. The time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in a manner of virtue
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#91. The scene he witnessed there in the twilight depths of the African jungle was burned forever into the Englishman's brain.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#92. As the body rolled to the ground Tarzan of the Apes placed his foot upon the neck of his lifelong enemy and, raising his eyes to the full moon, threw back his fierce young head and voiced the wild and terrible cry of his people.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#94. P44- in tarzans clever little mind many thoughts revolved and back of these was his divine power of reason.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#95. Mine own people do not care for me, John Carter; I am too unlike them. It is a sad fate, since I must live my life amongst them.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#96. She realized the spell that had been upon her in the depths of that far-off jungle, but there was no spell of enchantment now in prosaic Wisconsin.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#97. They say that none of us exists, except in the imagination of his fellows, other than as an intangible, invisible mentality.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#98. Those who know say that the most painful punishment that can be inflicted upon an adult male, short of injuring him, is a good, old fashioned shaking.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#99. I do not think that I am ever overconfident. I am merely wholly confident, and I maintain that there is all the difference in the world there.
Edgar Rice Burroughs
#100. Kho closed and sought my jugular with his teeth. He seemed to forget the hatchet dangling by
Edgar Rice Burroughs
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