E. Housman
E. Housman
excellence done thousand
Ten thousand times I've done my best and all's to do again.
right-words
I do not choose the right word, I get rid of the wrong one.
soul fence halt
There, by the starlit fences The wanderer halts and hears My soul that lingers sighing About the glimmering weirs.
men average criticism
The average man, if he meddles with criticism at all, is a conservative critic.
personal-opinions perception literature
Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.
hurt beer men
Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think.
life thinking men
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose, But young men think it is, and we were young.
lonely hero men
Housman is one of my heroes and always has been. He was a detestable and miserable man. Arrogant, unspeakably lonely, cruel, and so on, but and absolutely marvellous minor poet, I think, and a great scholar.
ignorance long three
Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.
integrity hypocrisy house
The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.
use humans
All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use.
land shining nostalgia
That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways where I went and cannot come again.
lying sleep night
Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.
people dumb church
The bells they sound on Bredon, And still the steeples hum. "Come all to church, good people"- Oh, noisy bells, be dumb; I hear you, I will come.