William Empson

Quotes

1. All those large dreams by which men long live well

   Are magic-lanterned on the smoke of hell.

   p. 52

2. 

   Stars how much further from me fill my night.

   Strange that she too should be inaccessible,

   Who shares my sun. He curtains her from sight,

   And but in darkness is she visible.

3. 

   Your rights reach down where all owners meet, in Hell's

   Pointed exclusive conclave, at earth’s centre

   (Your spun farm's root still on that axis dwells);

   And up, through galaxies, a growing sector.

   p. 37

4. 

   Liberal hopefulness

   Regards death as a mere border to an improving picture.

   p. 78

5. 

   Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can't be solved by analysis.

   p. 290

6. 

   Buddhists and Christians contrive to agree about death

   Making death their ideal basis for different ideals.

   The Communists however disapprove of death

   Except when practical.

   p. 78

7. 

   Not to have fire is to be a skin that shrills.

   p. 79

8. 

   Hours before dawn we were woken by the quake.

   My house was on a cliff. The thing could take

   Bookloads off shelves, break bottles in a row.

   Then the long pause and then the bigger shake.

   It seemed the best thing to be up and go.

   p. 69

9. 

   Man, as the prying housemaid of the soul.

   p. 52

10. 

    Shall I make it clear, boys, for all to apprehend,

    Those that will not hear, boys, waiting for the end,

    Knowing it is near, boys, trying to pretend,

    Sitting in cold fear, boys, waiting for the end?

    p. 81

11. 

    Attending there let us absorb the cultures of nations And dissolve into our judgement all their codes. Then, being clogged with a natural hesitation (People are continually asking one the way out), Let us stand here and admit that we have no road. Being everything, let us admit that is to be something, Or give ourselves the benefit of the doubt; Let us offer our pinch of dust all to this God, And grant his reign over the entire building.

    p. 55

12. 

    But as to risings, I can tell you why.

    It is on contradiction that they grow.

    It seemed the best thing to be up and go.

    Up was the heartening and the strong reply

    The heart of standing is we cannot fly.

    p. 70