The Skin of Our Teeth Quotes

“I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them--it was that promise.”
― Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth

“MRS. ANTROBUS: What, George? What have you lost? ANTROBUS: The most important thing of all: The desire to begin again, to start building.”
― Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play

“I’ll be scalded and tarred if a man can’t get a little welcome when he comes home. Well, Maggie, you old gunny-sack, how’s the broken down old weather hen?—Sabina, old fishbait, old skunkpot.—And the children,—how’ve the little smellers been?”
― Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play

“Each new child that’s born to the Antrobuses seems to them to be sufficient reason for the whole universe’s being set in motion; and each new child that dies seems to them to have been spared a whole world of sorrow, and what the end of it will be is still very much an open question.”
― Thornton Wilder, The Skin of Our Teeth: A Play