William Empson Quotes
Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can't be solved by analysis.
Quotes to Explore
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Fun is carefree. I am not carefree.
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I grew up on comics and cartoons. So, as an adult, I like comics and cartoons.
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The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent.
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I get some of my ideas from watching my three daughters, but most of them come from my own memories of growing up. I can remember how romantic I was, not just about love, but romance in the classic sense - the romantic ideals: of honor and truth, of loyalty, sacrifice and fairness. Those were the elements that made a story satisfying to me.
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The only time people get pressured into doing reunions to make more money is when the current lineup is underperforming. And by bringing back the other guy, it increases their draw.
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The world itself has become a smaller place. If you want to be remembered and create a legacy, you have to reach out to people. They want to know you. I can just say where I'm going, and Twitter will get it, and if there's a controversy, I can give my opinion. It's easier to communicate.
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I am a fan of Botox.
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Excuse me Doctor, I think I now a little something about medicine.
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Wandering flushes a glory that fades with arrival.
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Sleep helps you win at life.
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Make some sacrifice for your art and you will be repaid, but ask of art to sacrifice herself for you and a bitter disappointment may come to you.
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There were certain people who were out to get me. I know who those people were. They exist, believe me. They know that I know. They spent millions of dollars in order to try to get rid of me. I'm happy they lost most of their money.
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Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.
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Truthfulness is godliness.
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It's just endless what you can learn from a single work of art. You can fill up the crevices of your life, the cracks of your life, the places where the mortar comes out and falls away-you can fill it up with the love of art.
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Nobody else feels the same way about your dog that you do.
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Money is either a good or bad influence, according to the character of the person who possesses it.
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In this state one enriches everything out of one's own fullness: whatever one sees, whatever wills is seen swelled, taut, strong, overloaded with strength. A man in this state transforms things until they mirror his power—until they are reflections of his perfection. This having to transform into perfection is—art.
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I sat upon a promontory, And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back, Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath, That the rude sea grew civil at her song; And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, To hear the sea-maid's music.
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Everything about me is a contradiction, and so is everything about everybody else. We are made out of oppositions; we live between two poles. There's a philistine and an aesthete in all of us, and a murderer and a saint. You don't reconcile the poles. You just recognize them.
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Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can't be solved by analysis.
