A. E. Housman Quotes

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.

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

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

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

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

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

The troubles of our proud and angry dust are from eternity, and shall not fail. Bear them we can, and if we can we must. Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale.

And malt does more than Milton can to justify God's ways to man.

In every American there is an air of incorrigible innocence, which seems to conceal a diabolical cunning.

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.