John Masefield

“Commonplace people dislike tragedy because they dare not suffer and cannot exult.”

“Only the road and the dawn, the sun, the wind, and the rain,And the watch fire under stars, and sleep, and the road again.”

“Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.”

“Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the amusement and delight of the few.”

“In this life he laughs longest who laughs last.”

“It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.”

“There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see.”

“It is too maddening. I've got to fly off, right now, to some devilish navy yard, three hours in a seasick steamer, and after being heartily sick, I'll have to speak three times, and then I'll be sick coming home. Still, who would not be sick for England?”

“The luck will alter and the star will rise.”

“I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”

“The distant soul can shake the distant friend's soul and make the longing felt, over untold miles.”

“Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.”

“I must go down to the sea again, for the call of the running tide, is a wild call and a clear call, that cannot be denied!”

“(...) It,s hard not to be able. There, look there!/ I cannot get the movement nor the light;/Sometimes it almost makes a man despair/To try and try and never get it right./Oh, if I could -oh, if I only might,/I wouldn,t mind what hells I,d have to pass,/Not if the whole world called me fool and ass."Dauber (A poem). John Masefield. 1916. London William Heinemann”

“Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it.”

“I have seen flowers come in stony placesAnd kind things done by men with ugly faces,And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races,So I trust, too.”