English - Poet | March 26, 1859 - April 30, 1936
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.
A. E. Housman
GoodGreatPerceptionLiterature
The troubles of our proud and angry dust are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
SkyAngryProudBearDrinkShoulder
Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.
SkyDrinkShoulderYourLadAle
Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think.
ManThinkDrinkStuffWhomHurts
The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.
LiveHouseBuildCheapDelusions
Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.
MorningExperiencePoetryMemoryMe
Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write.
NatureThinkWriteAbilityContent
Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.
PoetryUnderstandingMeaningPerfect
Who made the world I cannot tell; 'Tis made, and here am I in hell. My hand, though now my knuckles bleed, I never soiled with such a deed.
WorldHellNowHandNeverTell
The laws of God, the laws of man he may keep that will and can; not I: let God and man decree laws for themselves and not for me.
GodManMeWillMayLaws
Malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.
GodManMoreJustifyThanWays
In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.
AmericanInnocenceAirCunningSeems
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