Poets From England

"Even words are not perhaps safe in these times."

"Fear is a powerful enemy, but a useful friend."

"Give me the taste of truth any day."

"Order is the priority of power."

"The truth is always the truth."

"This world and the Otherworld are full of curiosities and mysteries. It would take many lifetimes to understand them all. And disappointingly, it seems to me we only have one."

"Rhetoric is a dangerous art. It is the manipulation of the difference, one might say the distance, between truth and image [...] And in our times, that distance has become the means by which power is exercised [...] Rhetoric has been a force for persuasion since man began to speak, and to convince his enemy that he was indeed his friend."

"Do intellect and morality count for nothing in the way the future unfolds? [...] Greed is our king, and corruption is his servant."

"You are like one of your bees, going from flower to flower, sampling the nectar of this and that."

"Be careful, Rahotep, I know these writers, they say “borrow” when they mean “steal.” You will soon read your words coming back to you on some privately circulated scroll of new verse."

"‘Everything you say always sounds exactly right, my friend. You have the gift of turning confusion into an epigram.’ He smiled. ‘Yes, but it is a kind of tyranny with me, for I am far too neat for my own good. And life, as we know, is mostly chaos.’"

"For as I grow older, life seems to me simply an endless succession of problems to be solved, rather than hours to be enjoyed."

"Fear, that unknowable and all-powerful enemy, has invaded us all, like a secret army of shadows."

"For a world with so much sun we live in a dark place, in a dark time."

"The tale survives of two men Who fell in love "at first sight"; Who shared everything In unbounded intimacy Including the pillow And the red embroidered coverlet Which had been in the family For generations. Whether they had bad days, Domestic arguments Or inappropriate dreams We do not know – No doubt such burrs Were worked away by time Polishing its story; How they found each other And lived together all their lives, And died on the same day, And were buried by the grieving town On Mount Luofo's peak With their pillow and red coverlet; And a pine tree grew Out of the grave Like the character for longevity And true love.Such is the legend. I like to think of them, Pan Zhang and Wang Zhangxian, In the crowd of well-wishers Waiting in the April sunshine, Yes, under white cherry trees In full bloom, for us Here and now, on this day Early in the century, In our very best suits and ties, With our new rings Growing warm on our fingers Like keepsakes of light Saved from the stars."

"If christian nations therefore were nations of christians, all war would be impossible and unknown among them."

"Man is that link of the chain of universal existence, by which spiritual and corporeal Beings are united … How will man, that sanguinary tyrant, be able to excuse himself from the charge of those innumerable cruelties inflicted on his unoffending subjects committed to his care, formed for his benefit, and placed under his authority by their common Father?"

"Soames Jenyns and his more celebrated reviewer, Dr. Johnson, as explicitly as Bentham, laid down the doctrine that utility is the foundation of morals."

"Thousands are collected from the idle and the extravagant for seeing dogs, horses, men and monkeys perform feats of activity, and, in some places, for the privilege only of seeing one another."

"Great men whilst living must expect disgraces, Dead they're ador'd—when none desire their places."

"The chief business of a government is like that of a nurse, to hinder those who are under its care from doing mischief to themselves."

"We are unable to give life, and therefore ought not wantonly to take it away from the meanest insect, without sufficient reason; they all receive it from the same benevolent hand as ourselves, and have therefore an equal right to enjoy it."

"Omnipotence cannot work contradictions; it can only effect all possible things."

"Those who profess outrageous zeal for the liberty and prosperity of their country, and at the same time infringe her laws, affront her religion and debauch her people, are but despicable quacks."

"So from a brazen vase the trembling stream Reflects the lunar or the solar beam: Swift and elusive of the dazzled eyes, From wall to wall the dancing glory flies: Thence to the ceiling shoot the glancing rays, And o'er the roof the quivering splendor plays."

"But hear, ye gods! and Heaven's great ruler, hear, With due regard, a king's and father's prayer! My dear, dear Pallas, if the fates ordain Safe to return, and bless these eyes again: With age, pain, sickness, this one blessing give; On this condition I'll endure to live. But oh! if fortune has decreed his doom, Now, now, by death, prevent my woes to come; Now, while my hopes and fears uncertain flow, Now, ere she lifts her hand to strike the blow; While in these feeble arms I strain the boy, My sole delight, my last surviving joy. Ere the sad news of his untimely doom Shall bow this head with sorrow to the tomb!"

"The success of his Vida animated him to a higher undertaking; ...he gave us a complete English Eneid. Pitt, engaging as a rival with Dryden, naturally observed his failures, and avoided them; and, as he wrote after Pope's Iliad, he had an example of an exact, equable, and splendid versification. With these advantages, seconded by great diligence, he might successfully labour particular passages, and escape many errors. If the two versions are compared, perhaps the result would be, that Dryden leads the reader forward by his general vigour and sprightliness, and Pitt often stops him to contemplate the excellence of a single couplet; that Dryden's faults are forgotten in the hurry of delight, and that Pitt's beauties are neglected in the languor of a cold and listless perusal; that Pitt pleases the criticks, and Dryden the people; that Pitt is quoted, and Dryden read."

"Infernal gods, who rule the shades below, Chaos and Phlegethon, the realms of woe; Grant what I've heard I may to light expose, Secrets which earth, and night, and hell inclose!"

"Poor pitied youth! ... Bring fragrant flowers, the whitest lilies bring, With all the purple beauties of the spring; These gifts at least, these honours I'll bestow On the dear youth, to please his shade below."

"I received a letter from you with satisfaction, having long been desirous of any occasion of testifying my regard for you, and particularly of acknowledging the pleasure your Version of Vida's Poetick had afforded me. I had it not indeed from your bookseller, but read it with eagerness, and think it both a correct and a spirited translation. I am pleased to have been (as you tell me) the occasion of your undertaking that work: that is some sort of merit; and, if I have any in me, it really consists in an earnest desire to promote and produce, as far as I can, that of others. [...] I am obliged to you, Sir, for expressing a much higher opinion of me than I know I deserve: the freedom with which you write is yet what obliges and pleases me more; and it is with sincerity that I say, I would rather be thought by every ingenious man in the world, his servant, than his rival."

"A mighty tree, that bears a golden bough."

"Smooth lies the road to Pluto's gloomy shade, And hell's black gates for ever stand displayed, But 'tis a long unconquerable pain, To climb to these ethereal realms again."

"Ye subterranean gods! whose awful sway The gliding ghosts and silent shades obey: O Chaos, hear! and Phlegethon profound! Whose solemn empire stretches wide around! Give me, ye great tremendous powers! to tell Of scenes and wonders in the depths of Hell; Give me your mighty secrets to display From those black realms of darkness to the day."

"Be this your nobler praise in times to come, These your imperial arts, ye sons of Rome! O'er distant realms to stretch your awful sway, To bid those nations tremble and obey; To crush the proud, the suppliant foe to rear, To give mankind a peace, or shake the world with war."

"The shrill echoes ring amidst the skies."

"Mr. Pitt, no doubt, had many advantages above Dryden in this arduous province; as he was later in the attempt, he had consequently the version of Dryden to improve upon. He saw the errors of that great poet, and avoided them; he discovered his beauties, and improved upon them; and as he was not impelled by necessity, he had leisure to revise, correct, and finish his excellent work."

"Thrice round her neck my eager arms I threw; Thrice from my empty arms the phantom flew, Swift as the wind, with momentary flight, Swift as a fleeting vision of the night."

"Arms! arms! my friends, with speed my arms supply, 'Tis our last hour, and summons us to die; My arms!—in vain you hold me,—let me go— Give, give me back this moment to the foe. 'Tis well—we will not tamely perish all, But die revenged, and triumph in our fall."

"Now on a towering arch of waves we rise, Heaved on the bounding billows, to the skies. Then, as the roaring surge retreating fell, We shoot down headlong to the depths of hell."

"As when sedition fires the ignoble crowd, And the wild rabble storms and thirsts for blood; Of stones and brands a mingled tempest flies, With all the sudden arms that rage supplies: If some grave sire appears, amid the strife, In morals strict, and innocence of life, All stand attentive, while the sage controuls Their wrath, and calms the tempest of their souls."

"To all, proportioned terms he must dispense, And make the sound a picture of the sense."

"Ah, mighty Queen! you urge me to disclose, And feel, once more, unutterable woes."

"But oh! may Earth her dreadful gulf display, And gaping snatch me from the golden day; May I be hurled, by Heaven's almighty fire, Transfixed with thunder, and involved in fire, Down to the shades of Hell, from realms of light, The deep, deep shades of everlasting night."

"Be sure from nature never to depart; To copy nature is the task of art. The noblest poets own her sovereign sway, And ever follow where she leads the way."

"I proved unfaithful to my former spouse, And now I reap the fruits of broken vows!"

"Nor would I scruple, with a due regard, To read sometimes a rude unpolished bard, Among whose labours I may find a line Which from unsightly rust I may refine, And, with a better grace, adopt it into mine."

"In fine, if my partiality to Mr. Pitt does not mislead me, I should think he has executed his work [The Æneid of Virgil] with great spirit, that he has a fine flow of harmonious versification, and has rendered his author's sense with faithfulness and perspicuity."

"Several readers have asked me for Robert Conquest’s Three Laws of Politics. As best I can remember, they are: 1. Everyone is conservative about what he knows best. 2. Any organization not explicitly and constitutionally right-wing will sooner or later become left-wing. 3. The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies. Of the Second Law, Conquest gave the Church of England and Amnesty International as examples. Of the Third, he noted that a bureaucracy sometimes actually IS controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies – e.g.the postwar British Secret Service."

"I told you so, you fucking fools."

"On political matters basically the best, though not infallible, source is rumour at a high political or police level."