Stephen Spender Quotes
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Sometimes when I am writing, I am aware of a rhythm, a dance, a fury, which is as yet empty of words.
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All one can do is to achieve nakedness, to be what one is with all one's faculties and perceptions, strengthened by all the skill which one can acquire. And then to stand before the judgement of time.
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If you get to a certain age, all people want to know about you is people you knew. ...An American student once said to me, you know, isn't it extraordinary that I am alive and you're not dead.
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What is precious is never to forget, The delight of the blood drawn from ancient springs, Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth; Never to deny its pleasure in the simple morning light, Nor its grave evening demand for love; Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother, With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.
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Paint here no draped despairs, no saddening clouds, Where the soul rests, proclaims eternity. But let the wrong cry out as raw as wounds, This Time forgets and never heals, far less transcends.
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Never being, but always at the edge of Being.
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All that you can imagine you already know.
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So i learned both to accept myself and to aim beyond myself
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I think continually of those who were truly great...Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun, and left the vivid air signed with their honor.
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I think of those who were truly great. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.
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Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.
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Never allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.
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No one Shall hunger: Man shall spend equally. Our goal which we compel: Man shall be man.
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History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.