A.E. Housman Quotes

Luck's a chance, but trouble's sure.

All knots that lovers tie Are tied to sever. Here shall your sweetheart lie, Untrue for ever.

They say my verse is sad: no wonder; Its narrow measure spans Tears of eternity, and sorrow, Not mine. but man's.

Therefore, since the world has still Much good, but much less good than ill

The rainy Pleiads wester Orion plunges prone, And midnight strikes and hastens, And I lie down alone.

Hope lies to mortals And most believe her, But man's deceiver Was never mine.

Poetry is not the thing said, but the way of saying it.

Lovers lying two and two Ask not whom they sleep beside, And the bridegroom all night through Never turns him to the bride.

We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more.

I believe absolutely in love being the central motive force of the universe.

I still think that if the human race, or even one nation, could only get right about its God the rest would follow.

I have always been a writer of letters, and of long ones; so, when I first thought of writing a book in the form of letters, I knew that I could do it quickly and easily.

Look not in my eyes, for fear They mirror true the sight I see, And there you find your face too clear And love it and be lost like me.

Earth and high heaven are fixed of old and founded strong.

June suns, you cannot store them To warm the winter's cold, The lad that hopes for heaven Shall fill his mouth with mould.

The thoughts of others Were light and fleeting, Of lovers' meeting Or luck or fame. Mine were of trouble, And mine were steady; So I was ready When trouble came.

Stone, steel, dominions pass, Faith too, no wonder; So leave alone the grass That I am under.

Tomorrow, more's the pity, Away we both must hie, To air the ditty and to earth I.

He would not stay for me, and who can wonder? He would not stay for me to stand and gaze. I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder, And went with half my life about my ways.

Some men are more interesting than their books but my book is more interesting than its man.

I think that to transfuse emotion - not to transmit thought but to set up in the reader's sense a vibration corresponding to what was felt by the writer - is the peculiar function of poetry.

Do not ever read books about versification: no poet ever learnt it that way. If you are going to be a poet, it will come to you naturally and you will pick up all you need from reading poetry.

But men at whiles are sober And think by fits and starts. And if they think, they fasten Their hands upon their hearts

Now hollow fires burn out to black, And lights are guttering low: Square your shoulders, lift your pack And leave your friends and go.

Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour, He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower Its strength, and struck.

But if you ever come to a road where danger; Or guilt or anguish or shame's to share. Be good to the lad who loves you true, And the soul that was born to die for you; And whistle and I'll be there.

His folly has not fellow Beneath the blue of day That gives to man or woman His heart and soul away.

There, like the wind through woods in riot, Through him the gale of life blew high; The tree of man was never quiet: Then 'twas the Roman, now 'tis I.

This is for all ill-treated fellows Unborn and unbegot, For them to read when they're in trouble And I am not.

It is right and natural that generous minds while in the twenties should think the books which try to reform the world's wrong the greatest of all.

I shall not die young, for I am already near seventy: I may die old.

If fathers were to be mothers, then there will never have a family of more than three.

I had never thought of myself as a dramatist, and, for really good technical results, the thought came too late: a man of letters has become too wordy to write economically for the stage.

A saint is one who makes goodness attractive.

If I live for another ten years I shall probably have written all that I want to write.

Father eternal, ruler of creation, Spirit of life, which moved ere form was made Through the thick darkness covering every nation Light to man's blindness, O be Thou our aid.

The sum of things to be known is inexhaustible, and however long we read, we shall never come to the end of our story-book.", 3 October 1892)

The sum of things to be known is inexhaustible, and however long we read, we shall never come to the end of our story-

Tis the old wind in the old anger, But then it threshed another wood.

All knots that lovers tieAre tied to sever.Here shall your sweetheart lie, Untrue for ever.

June suns, you cannot store themTo warm the winter's cold, The lad that hopes for heavenShall fill his mouth with mould.

The last hour from midnight had lost half its quarters, and the stars went lifting up the great minutes...

Like lightning she snatched her axe, and struck him on the neck - deep - once - twice - his life-blood gushed out, staining her feet.The stars touched midnight.

So they went running together, silent, toward the vast wastes of snow where no living thing but they two moved under the stars of night.

I seeIn many an eye that measures meThe mortal sickness of a mindToo unhappy to be kind.Undone with misery, all they canIs to hate their fello

Ale, man, Ale's the stuff to drink, for fellows whom it hurts to think.

Malt does more than Milton can To justify God's ways to man.

I a stranger and afraid In a world I never made.

And how am I to face the odds of man's bedevilment and God's? I a stranger and afraid in a world I never made.

Clay lies still but blood's a rover Breath's a ware that will not keep Up lad when the journey's over There'll be time enough to sleep.