Stephen Spender (Sir Stephen Harold Spender) Quotes
Memory exercised in a particular way is a natural gift of poetic genius. The poet above all else, is a person who never forgets certain sense impressions which he has experienced and which he can relive again as though with all their original freshness.
Quotes to Explore
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Every one of us, no matter how damaged or abnormal or shut down, we're all looking for love. Every person needs love in this world, but our views on what love is vary enormously.
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I read fashion magazines all the time. It's fun, but I don't take it very seriously.
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As I've always said: The future lies ahead.
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I know what I want, I want things for myself, but I think the key to life is somebody to love, something to do and something to look forward to. I don't think it's complicated.
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Heartache is very fertile ground for song-making but so is happiness, so is absolute bliss.
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It's better to make fun of yourself because you've always got someone around to make fun of, and they can't sue you.
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I guess writing is a kind of therapy in the sense that there are things you need to say and you say them, and better out than in.
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The National Security Council's real role is to coordinate the various activities of the government of the United States in the furtherance of American foreign policy.
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The world is equally shocked at hearing Christianity criticized and seeing it practiced.
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I don't get claustrophobic.
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In the 1920s, big names in the Arab world spoke of Scheherazade as an example for intellectuals fighting for their rights. She was a fighter for the right of free expression.
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A woman, like a man, should be treated with human decency, according to the rule of law, and free of the abusive, unjust exercise of power. And you don't need to have plumbed the depths of the female or male psyche to live in accord with these principles of civilized life and the maxims of a free society.
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A tea set is good for a newborn girl. It is a gift that instantly makes the room a girl's room.
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It's only words... unless they're true.
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People assume when they come into a church and see a person up there speaking, 'That person must be a good person.' My challenge through the years has been believing that: 'I guess I must be a really good person.' I struggle with it. It just helps me to keep that confessional posture.
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Now the relation which, in the sphere of nature, being and semblance or sensation bear to one another in this antithesis, is the same as that which in ethics exists between good and pleasure or feeling.
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To reach a mass audience, you have to offer more than just hostility.
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'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' had a formative effect on me. I think it's one of those works that if you encounter it very early you're doubly enchanted by the beauty of the language and the strangeness of the vision. It stays with you.
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A lot of people believe that when you are Buddhist, you are the Dalai Lama. I'm certainly not.
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When you think you've got hold of a genius ... you can't be sure whether it's a spark of the divine fire or a mere flash in the pan.
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I had done the child acting thing, which is pretty much learning your lines, standing there looking natural, and having fun.
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When I forget the power of the word, I read Frederick Buechner. When I forget the deep relief of telling the truth, I read Frederick Buechner. When I forget to look for the holiness all around me, I read Frederick Buechner. When I forget why the gospel matters, I read Frederick Buechner.
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We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.
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Memory exercised in a particular way is a natural gift of poetic genius. The poet above all else, is a person who never forgets certain sense impressions which he has experienced and which he can relive again as though with all their original freshness.
