William Empson Quotes

• This world is good enough for me, if only I can be good enough for it.

  William Empson

  World, Good Enough, Be Good

  45 Copy quote

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

  William Empson

  Analysis, Maintaining, Contradiction

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  10 Copy quote

• The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry.

  William Empson

  Art, Roots, Poetry

  William Empson (1966). “Seven Types of Ambiguity”, p.3, New Directions Publishing

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• Proust has listed a great many reasons why it is impossible to be happy, but, in the course of being happy, one finds it difficult to remember them.

  William Empson

  Reason Why, Impossible, Remember

  William Empson (1966). “Seven Types of Ambiguity”, p.249, New Directions Publishing

  6 Copy quote

• The difficult part of good temper consists in forbearance, and accommodation to the ill-humors of others.

  William Empson

  Forbearance, Accommodations, Difficult

  7 Copy quote

• Poetry contains nothing haphazard.

  William Empson

  Haphazard

  7 Copy quote

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

  William Empson

  Dream, Men, Long

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  4 Copy quote

• To produce pure proletarian art the artist must be at one with the worker; this is impossible, not for political reasons, but because the artist never is at one with any public.

  William Empson

  Art, Political, Impossible

  William Empson (1935). “Some Versions of Pastoral”, p.14, New Directions Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The heart of standing is that you cannot fly.

  William Empson

  Heart, Standing

  7 Copy quote

• The central function of imaginative literature is to make you realize that other people act on moral convictions different from your own.

  William Empson

  People, Different, Literature

  William Empson, John Haffenden (1988). “The royal beasts and other works”

  7 Copy quote

• Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.

  William Empson

  Men, Law, Long

  "Legal Fiction" l. 1 (1935)

  7 Copy quote

• I'm afraid I take ... this rather clinical view of love: it's saving you from madness. I'm not so enthusiastic as other poets have been.

  William Empson

  Views, Poetry, Literature

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  4 Copy quote

• 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?

  William Empson

  Boys, Knowing, Waiting

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  5 Copy quote

• It seems unpleasantly refined to put things off till someone knows.

  William Empson

  Refined, Knows, Seems

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  4 Copy quote

• Poets, on the face of it, have either got to be easier or to write their own notes; readers have either got to take more trouble over reading or cease to regard notes as pretentious and a sign of bad poetry

  William Empson

  Reading, Writing, Faces

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  7 Copy quote

• I think many people (like myself) prefer to read poetry mixed with prose;
  it gives you more to go by; the conventions of poetry have been getting
  far off from normal life, so that to have a prose bridge makes
  reading poetry seem more natural.

  William Empson

  Reading, Thinking, Bridges

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

  4 Copy quote

• Liberal hopefulness Regards death as a mere border to an improving picture.

  William Empson

  Borders, Hopefulness, Regard

  William Empson (1984). “Collected poems”, Chatto & Windus

  16 Copy quote

• Twixt devil and deep sea, man hacks his caves; Birth, death; one, many; what is true, and seems; Earth's vast hot iron, cold space's empty waves.

  William Empson

  Men, Sea, Iron

  William Empson (1984). “Collected poems”, Chatto & Windus

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  William Empson

  Christian, Buddhist, Different

  William Empson (1984). “Collected poems”, Chatto & Windus

  4 Copy quote

• Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort nor the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.

  William Empson

  Blood, Effort, Poison

  'Missing Dates' (1935)

  4 Copy quote

• Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.
  What is there to be or do?
  What's become of me or you?
  Are we kind or are we true?
  Sitting two and two, boys, waiting for the end.

  William Empson

  Boys, Two, Waiting

  1940 'Just a Smack at Auden'.

  4 Copy quote

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