Edgar Rice Burroughs Quotes

I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to any other. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narrator for the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days that followed for the balance of the strange tale.

When Tarzan killed he more often smiled than scowled, and smiles are the foundation of beauty.

If I had followed my better judgment always, my life would have been a very dull one.

I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.

If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor.

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.

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.

The whole fabric of our religion is based on superstitious beliefin 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.

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.

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.

It is a characteristic of the weak and criminal to attribute to others the misfortunes that are the result of their own wickedness.

Golf is a mental disorder.

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.

Am I alive and a reality, or am I but a dream?

You are here for but an instant, and you mustn't take yourself too seriously

Even theories must have foundations.

Clothes therefore, must be the insignia of the superiority of man over all other animals, for surely there could be no other reason for wearing the hideous things

The time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem appears garbed in a manner of virtue

I have discovered that the world over, unusual weather prevails at all times of the year.

We are, all of us, creatures of habit, and when the seeeming necessity for schooling ourselves in new ways ceases to exist, we fall naturally and easily into the manner and customs which long usage has implanted ineradicably within us.

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.

It never seems to occur to some people, that, like beauty, a sense of humor may sometimes be fatal.

Death, only, renders hope futile.

I love you, and because I love you I believe in you. But if I did not believe, still should I love. Had you come back for me, and had there been no other way, I would have gone into the jungle with you - forever.

A warrior may change his metal, but not his heart.

For me, temperance is essential to good work.

Anger and hate against one we love steels our hearts, but contempt or pity leaves us silent and ashamed.

No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.

Love is a strange master, and human nature is still stranger.

They say that none of us exists, except in the imagination of his fellows, other than as an intangible, invisible mentality.

I loved her. I still love her, though I curse her in my sleep, so nearly one are love and hate, the two most powerful and devasting emotions that control man, nations, life.

I presume that it is the better part of wisdom that we bow to our fate with as good grace as possible.

I got this story from someone who had no business in the telling of it.

I write to escape ... to escape poverty.

I shall have to believe even though I cannot understand.

The jungle which is presided over by Kudu, the sun, is a very different jungle from that of Goro, the moon. The diurnal jungle has its own aspect--its own lights and shades, its own birds, its own blooms, its own beasts ... The lights and shades of the nocturnal jungle are as different as one might imagine the lights and shades of another world to differ from those of our world.

This was life! Ah, how he loved it! Civilization held nothing like this in its narrow and circumscribed sphere, hemmed in by restrictions and conventionalities. Even clothes were a hindrance and a nuisance. At last he was free. He had not realized what a prisoner he had been.

In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people, they have no lawyers.

Imagination is but another name for super intelligence.

Subconscious minds are no less fallible than the objective mind.

For myself, I always assume that a lion is ferocious, and so I am never caught off my guard.

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.

I could write stories just as rotten.

For a time Jack was angry; but when he had been without the jacket for a short while he began to realize that being half-clothed is infinitely more uncomfortable than being entirely naked. Soon he did not miss his clothing in the least, and from that he came to revel in the freedom of his unhampered state.

Even brave men, and D'Arnot was a brave man, are sometimes frightened by solitude.

Could it be that there were other things more desirable than cold logic and undefiled brain power?

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.

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-

I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate and experiment where wiser men would have left well enough alone.

I am Tarzan of the Apes. I want you. I am yours. You are mine. We live here together always in my house. I will bring you the best of fruits, the tenderest deer, the finest meats that roam the jungle. I will hunt for you. I am the greatest of the jungle fighters. I will fight for you. I am the mightiest of the jungle fighters. You are Jane Porter, I saw it in your letter. When you see this you will know that it is for you and that Tarzan of the Apes loves you.