A. E. Housman Quotes

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• That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, the happy highways where I went and cannot come again.

  A. E. Housman

  Land, Shining, Nostalgia

  A Shropshire Lad no. 40, l. 5 (1896)

  64 Copy quote

• The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.

  A. E. Housman

  Integrity, Hypocrisy, House

  37 Copy quote

• All knowledge is precious whether or not it serves the slightest human use.

  A. E. Housman

  Use, Humans

  39 Copy quote

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

  A. E. Housman

  Way, Said, Poetry Is

  7 Copy quote

• I do not choose the right word, I get rid of the wrong one.

  A. E. Housman

  Right Words

  24 Copy quote

• Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.

  A. E. Housman

  Funny, Humor, Ignorance

  "Satires". Book by Juvenal, edited by A. E. Housman, p. XI, 1931.

  24 Copy quote

• Existence is not itself a good thing, that we should spend a lifetime securing its necessaries: a life spent, however victoriously, in securing the necessaries of life is no more than an elaborate furnishing and decoration of apartments for the reception of a guest who is never to come. Our business here is not to live, but to live happily.

  A. E. Housman

  Guests, Life Is, Lifetime

  7 Copy quote

• A moment's thought would have shown him. But a moment is a long time, and thought is a painful process.

  A. E. Housman

  Long, Painful, Moments

  14 Copy quote

• I, a stranger and afraid, in a world I never made.

  A. E. Housman

  World, Stranger, Made

  Last Poems no. 12, l. 17 (1922)

  12 Copy quote

• The mortal sickness of a mind too unhappy to be kind.

  A. E. Housman

  Happiness, Joy, Mind

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.64, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• If a man will comprehend the richness and variety of the universe, and inspire his mind with a due measure of wonder and awe, he must contemplate the human intellect not only on its heights of genius but in its abysses of ineptitude.

  A. E. Housman

  Science, Men, Inspire

  Marcus Manilius, A. E. Housman (2011). “Astronomicon”, p.19, Cambridge University Press

  20 Copy quote

• I am not a pessimist but a pejorist (as George Eliot said she was not an optimist but a meliorist); and that philosophy is founded on my observation of the world, not on anything so trivial and irrelevant as personal history.

  A. E. Housman

  Philosophy, Historical, Personal History

  9 Copy quote

• Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose, But young men think it is, and we were young.

  A. E. Housman

  Life, Men, Thinking

  More Poems (1936) no. 36

  24 Copy quote

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

  A. E. Housman

  Luck, Chance, Trouble

  A. E. Housman (2012). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.43, Courier Corporation

  8 Copy quote

• When the journey's over/There'll be time enough to sleep.

  A. E. Housman

  Sleep, Journey, Enough

  'A Shropshire Lad' (1896) no. 4

  9 Copy quote

• Into my hear an air that kills through yon far country blows what are those blue remembered hills what spires,what farms are those? that is the land of lost content I can see it shining plain the happy highways where I went and cannot come again.

  A. E. Housman

  Country, Blow, Air

  A Shropshire Lad no. 40, l. 5 (1896)

  12 Copy quote

• Oh when I was in love with you,
  Then I was clean and brave,
  And miles around the wonder grew
  How well did I behave.
  And now the fancy passes by,
  And nothing will remain,
  And miles around they'll say that
  I Am quite myself again.

  A. E. Housman

  Life, Love You, Brave

  Shropshire Lad (1896) no. 18

  4 Copy quote

• To be a textual critic requires aptitude for thinking and willingness to think; and though it also requires other things, those things are supplements and cannot be substitutes. Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all others is necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders and brains, not pudding, in your head.

  A. E. Housman

  Thinking, Brain, Pudding

  "The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism". Lecture, August 04, 1921.

  4 Copy quote

• Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

  A. E. Housman

  Beer, Sky, Ale

  Last Poems (1922) no. 9

  15 Copy quote

• I sought them far and found them, The sure, the straight, the brave, The hearts I lost my own to, The souls I could not save They braced their belts about them, They crossed in ships the sea, They sought and found six feet of ground, And there they died for me.

  A. E. Housman

  Heart, Sea, Feet

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.134, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• With rue my heart is laden For golden friends I had, For many a rose-lipped maiden And many a lightfoot lad.

  A. E. Housman

  Heart, Rose, Rue

  Shropshire Lad (1896) no. 54

  23 Copy quote

• Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.

  A. E. Housman

  Stupid, Personal Opinions, Perception

  A. E. Housman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of A. E. Housman (Illustrated)”, p.151, Delphi Classics

  67 Copy quote

• Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out. Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

  A. E. Housman

  Perfect, Poetry, Understanding

  "The Name and Nature of Poetry". The Leslie Stephen Lecture, Cambridge University, May 09, 1933.

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  A. E. Housman

  Love, Eye, Mirrors

  A. E. Housman (2012). “A Shropshire Lad”, p.11, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

• Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
  Is hung with bloom along the bough,
  And stands about the woodland ride
  Wearing white for Eastertide.
  
  Now, of my threescore years and ten,
  Twenty will not come again,
  And take from seventy springs a score,
  It only leaves me fifty more.
  
  And since to look at things in bloom
  Fifty springs are little room,
  About the woodlands I will go
  To see the cherry hung with snow.

  A. E. Housman

  Spring, White, Years

  A Shropshire Lad no. 2, l. 1 (1896)

  8 Copy quote

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