Great Throughts Treasury

"He knew the anguish of the marrow, the ague of the skeleton; no contact possible to flesh allayed the fever of the bone."

"He laughed like an irresponsible foetus."

"He was famous in proverb and famous in rhyme."

"He who was living is now dead we who were living are now dying with a little patience."

"Here are the years that walk between, bearing away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring one who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing white light folded, sheathed about her, folded. The new years walk, restoring through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring with a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem the time. Redeem the unread vision in the higher dream while jeweled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse."

"He's outwardly respectable. (They say he cheats at cards.) And his footprints are not found in any file of Scotland Yard's. And when the larder's looted, or the jewel-case is rifled, or when the milk is missing, or another Peke's been stifled, or the greenhouse glass is broken, and the trellis past repair - ay, there's the wonder of the thing! Macavity's not there! And when the Foreign Office find a Treaty's gone astray, or the Admiralty lose some plans and drawings by the way, there may be a scrap of paper in the hall or on the stair -but it's useless to investigate - Mcavity's not there! And when the loss has been disclosed, the Secret Service say: 'It must have been Macavity!' - but he's a mile away. You'll be sure to find him resting, or a-licking of his thumbs, or engaged in doing complicated long-division sums. Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, there never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity. He always has an alibi, and one or two to spaer: at whatever time the deed took place - MACAVITY WASN'T THERE! And they say that all the Cats whose wicked deeds are widely known (I might mention Mungojerrie, I might mention Griddlebone) are nothing more than agents for the Cat who all the time just controls their operations: the Napoleon of Crime!"

"His laughter tinkled among the teacups."

"Here I am, an old man in a dry month, Being read to by a boy, waiting for rain."

"History has many cunning passages, contrived corridors and issues."

"Home is where one starts from."

"Hold tight, hold tight, we must insist that the world is what we have always taken it to be."

"However you disguise it, this thing does not change: The perpetual struggle of good and evil."

"Humor is also a way of saying something serious."

"Honest criticism and sensible appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry."

"I am an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classicist in literature and a royalist in politics."

"I am aware of the damp souls of housemaids sprouting despondently at area gates."

"I can show you fear in a handful of dust."

"I am moved by fancies that are curled, around these images and cling, the notion of some infinitely gentle, infinitely suffering thing."

"I decided that if the shaking of her breasts could be stopped, some of the fragments of the afternoon might be collected, and I concentrated my attention with careful subtlety to this end."

"I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;"

"I believe it is Old Deuteronomy! Old Deuteronomy sits in the street, he sits in the High Street on market day; the bullocks may bellow, the sheep they may bleat, but the dogs and the herdsman will turn them away. The cars and the lorries run over the kerb, and the villagers put up a notice: ROAD CLOSED —So that nothing untoward may chance to disturb Deuteronomy's rest when he feels so disposed or when he's engaged in domestic economy: and the oldest inhabitant croaks: Well of all …Things … Can it be … really! … No! … Yes! …Ho! hi! Oh, my eye! My sight's unreliable, but I can guess that the cause of the trouble is Old Deuteronomy!"

"I believe the moment of birth is when we have knowledge of death. I believe the season of birth is the season of sacrifice."

"I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god-sullen, untamed and intractable."

"I don’t think good poetry can be produced in a kind of political attempt to overthrow some existing form. I think it just supersedes. People find a way in which they can say something. I can’t say it that way, what way can I find that will do?"

"I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates."

"I don't belong to any generation."

"I gotta use words to talk to you."

"I grow old … I grow old … I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each."

"I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different."

"I have given you the power of choice, and you only alternate between futile speculation and unconsidered action."

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."

"I had not thought death had undone so many. Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled."

"I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, and I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, and in short, I was afraid."

"I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me."

"I have seen them riding seaward on the waves"

"I journeyed to London, to the time-kept City, where the River flows, with foreign flotations. There I was told: we have too many churches, and too few chop-houses."

"I say to you: Make perfect your will. I say: take no thought of the harvest, but only of proper sowing."

"I must tell you that I should really like to think there's something wrong with me- Because, if there isn't, then there's something wrong with the world itself-and that's much more frightening! That would be terrible. So I'd rather believe there is something wrong with me that could be put right."

"I love reading another reader’s list of favorites. Even when I find I do not share their tastes or predilections, I am provoked to compare, contrast, and contradict. It is a most healthy exercise, and one altogether fruitful."

"I learn a great deal by merely observing you, and letting you talk as long as you please, and taking note of what you do not say."

"I sat upon the shore fishing, with the arid plain behind me shall I at least set my lands in order?"

"I saw her at the supreme moment with corrupt forces last. I saw Eternal keeper to hold my coat and my grinning, and in short, I was afraid."

"I must say Bernard Shaw is greatly improved by music."

"I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter."

"I said to my soul, be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting. Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought: So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."

"I say to myself, kept motionless and wait without hope. Hope may be wished for to something wrong and wait without love. Love may be love to of something wrong there after faith, but faith, love and hope are all waiting; wait without thought because you're not contagious for thought, and so it will be dark is light and Allahrak is dancing"

"I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government, but violence, duplicity and frequent malversation. King rules or barons rule: the strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice. They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it."

"I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach."

"I should have been a pair of ragged claws scuttling across the floors of silent seas."

"I shall not want Honor in Heaven For I shall meet Sir Philip Sidney And have talk with Coriolanus And other heroes of that kidney."