Stephen Spender Quotes

Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.

All that you can imagine you already know.

I'm struggling at the end to get out of the valley of hectoring youth, journalistic middle age, imposture, moneymaking, public relations, bad writing, mental confusion.

Paul Valery speaks of the 'une ligne donnee' of a poem. One line is given to the poet by God or by nature, the rest he has to discover for himself.

Although Poets are vain and ambitious, their vanity and ambition are of the purest kind attainable in this world. They are ambitious to be accepted for what they altimately are as revealed in their poetry.

Never allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

I think of those who were truly great. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.

The greatest of all human delusions is that there is a tangible goal, and not just direction towards an ideal aim. The idea that a goal can be attained perpetually frustrates human beings, who are disappointed at never getting there, never being able to stop.

History is the ship carrying living memories to the future.