Louis Simpson Quotes

• The aim of military training is not just to prepare men for battle, but to make them long for it.

  Louis Simpson

  Military, War, Men

  23 Copy quote

• The Open Road goes to the used-car lot.

  Louis Simpson

  Car, Used Car, Used

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.195, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  7 Copy quote

• The treasures of Cathay were never found.
  In this America, this wilderness
  Where the axe echoes with a lonely sound,
  The generations labor to possess
  And grave by grave we civilize the ground.

  Louis Simpson

  Lonely, Echoes, Discovery

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.124, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  8 Copy quote

• Being shelled is the main work of an infantry soldier, which no one talks about. Everyone has his own way of going about it. In general, it means lying face down and contracting your body into as small a space as possible.

  Louis Simpson

  Lying, War, Mean

  8 Copy quote

• Paranoia imposes its own vision on the external world; it differs from other kinds of visionary experience in that the paranoid wants others to share his view—even insists on it. Paranoia is very like poetic creativity. This accounts for my fascination with certain people in whom this state of mind was evident: ‘characters’ met by chance, whose words and gestures would haunt me for years until, finally, in a poem I was able to dispel them.

  Louis Simpson

  Creativity, Character, Views

  11 Copy quote

• In my grandmother's house there was always chicken soup
  And talk of the old country--mud and boards,
  Poverty,
  The snow falling down and necks of lovers.

  Louis Simpson

  Country, Fall, Grandmother

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.182, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  7 Copy quote

• For people may not know what they think about politics in the Balkans, or the vexed question of men and women, but everyone has a definite opinion about the flavour of shredded coconut.

  Louis Simpson

  Men, Thinking, People

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.293, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  56 Copy quote

• It's complicated, being an American, Having the money and the bad conscience, both at the same time.

  Louis Simpson

  Complicated, Conscience

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.191, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  6 Copy quote

• All that grave weight of America Cancelled! Like Greece and Rome. The future in ruins!

  Louis Simpson

  Rome, America, Weight

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.196, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  8 Copy quote

• I gave no prescriptions,
  And those who have taken my moods for prophecies
  Mistake the matter.

  Louis Simpson

  Mistake, Taken, Ignorance

  Louis Simpson (2003). “The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems, 1940-2001”, p.195, BOA Editions, Ltd.

  4 Copy quote

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