# Quote — William Empson, The Complete Poems

> 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.

- Author: [William Empson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson.md)
- Book: [The Complete Poems](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems.md)
- Page: 55
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Empson#The_Complete_Poems) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/attending-there-let

## More from this book

> All those large dreams by which men long live well
>
> Are magic-lanterned on the smoke of hell.

p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/all-those-large.md)

> 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.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/stars-how-much.md)

> 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 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-empson/the-complete-poems/your-rights-reach.md)