The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not.

Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 184.

I have never yet been able to perceive how anything can be known for truth by consecutive reasoning—and yet it must be.

Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 185

O for a life of sensations rather than of thoughts!

Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 22 November 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 185

The excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate, from their being in close relationship with beauty and truth.

Letter to George and Thomas Keats, 21 December 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 192

Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason—Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge.

Letter to George and Thomas Keats, 21 December 1817, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 194

There is nothing stable in the world—uproar’s your only music.

Letter to George and Thomas Keats, 13 January 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 204

For the sake of a few fine imaginative or domestic passages, are we to be bullied into a certain philosophy engendered in the whims of an egotist?

Letter to J. H. Reynolds, 3 February 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 223; on the overbearing influence of Wordsworth upon his contemporaries

We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us—and if we do not agree, seems to put its hand in its breeches pocket. Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul, and does not startle it or amaze it with itself, but with its subject.

Letter to J. H. Reynolds, 3 February 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 224

Poetry should surprise by a fine excess, and not by singularity—it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

Letter to John Taylor, 27 February 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 238

Its [poetry’s] touches of beauty should never be half way, thereby making the reader breathless, instead of content...If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

Letter to John Taylor, 27 February 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 238

Scenery is fine—but human nature is finer.

Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 13 March 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 242

It is impossible to live in a country which is continually under hatches....Rain! Rain! Rain!

Letter to J. H. Reynolds from Devon, 10 April 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 269

I have been hovering for some time between an exquisite sense of the luxurious and a love for philosophy—were I calculated for the former I should be glad—but as I am not I shall turn all my soul to the latter.

Letter to John Taylor, 24 April 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 271

Axioms in philosophy are not axioms until they are proved upon our pulses: We read fine— things, but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.

Letter to J. H. Reynolds, 3 May 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 279

I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top.

Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 25 May 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 287

I do think better of womankind than to suppose they care whether Mister John Keats five feet high likes them or not.

Letter to Benjamin Bailey, 18 July 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 342

I wish I could say Tom was any better. His identity presses upon me so all day that I am obliged to go out.

Referring to his youngest brother in a letter to C. W. Dilke, 21 September 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 368

There is an awful warmth about my heart like a load of immortality.

Letter to J. H. Reynolds, 22 September 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 370

In Endymion, I leaped headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice.

Letter to James Hessey, 8 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 374

I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.

Letter to James Hessey, 8 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 374

As to the poetical character itself, (I mean that sort of which, if I am any thing, I am a member; that sort distinguished from the Wordsworthian or egotistical sublime; which is a thing per se and stands alone) it is not itself—it has no self....It has as much delight in conceiving an Iago as an Imogen.

Letter to Richard Woodhouse, 27 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 386

A poet is the most unpoetical of any thing in existence, because he has no identity; he is continually in for—and filling some other body.

Letter to Richard Woodhouse, 27 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 387

I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 14 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 394

The roaring of the wind is my wife and the stars through the window pane are my children.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 24 October 1818, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 1, p. 403

A man’s life of any worth is a continual allegory.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 19 February 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 67

I have come to this resolution—never to write for the sake of writing, or making a poem, but from running over with any little knowledge or experience which many years of reflection may perhaps give me—otherwise I shall be dumb.

Letter to B. R. Haydon, 8 March 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 43

It is true that in the height of enthusiasm I have been cheated into some fine passages but that is nothing.

Letter to B. R. Haydon, 8 March 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 43

I go among the fields and catch a glimpse of a stoat or a fieldmouse peeping out of the withered grass—The creature hath a purpose and its eyes are bright with it—I go amongst the buildings of a city and I see a man hurrying along—to what? The Creature has a purpose and his eyes are bright with it.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 19 March 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 80

Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced—even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 19 March 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 81

Call the world if you please ‘The vale of soul-making’.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 21 April 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 102

I have met with women whom I really think would like to be married to a poem and to be given away by a novel.

Letter to Fanny Brawne, 8 July 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 127

I have two luxuries to brood over in my walks, your loveliness and the hour of my death. O that I could have possession of them both in the same minute.

Letter to Fanny Brawne, 25 July 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 133

I am convinced more and more day by day that fine writing is next to fine doing the top thing in the world.

Letter to J. H. Reynolds, 24 August 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 146

All clean and comfortable I sit down to write.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 17 September 1819, in H. E. Rollins(ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 186

The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing—to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party.

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats, 24 September 1819, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 213

‘If I should die,’ said I to myself, ‘I have left no immortal work behind me—nothing to make my friends proud of my memory—but I have loved the principle of beauty in all things, and if I had had time I would have made myself remembered.’

Letter to Fanny Brawne, c.February 1820, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 263

I long to believe in immortality...If I am destined to be happy with you here—how short is the longest life—I wish to believe in immortality—I wish to live with you for ever.

Letter to Fanny Brawne, June 1820, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 293

I wish you could invent some means to make me at all happy without you. Every hour I am more and more concentrated in you; every thing else tastes like chaff in my mouth.

Letter to Fanny Brawne, August 1820, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 311

You I am sure will forgive me for sincerely remarking that you might curb your magnanimity and be more of an artist, and ‘load every rift’ of your subject with ore.

Letter to Shelley, August 1820, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 323; echoing Edmund Spenser ‘The Faerie Queen’ (1596) bk. 2, canto 7, st. 28, l. 5: ‘And with rich metal loaded every rift’

I shall soon be laid in the quiet grave—thank God for the quiet grave—O! I can feel the cold earth upon me—the daisies growing over me—O for this quiet—it will be my first.

In a letter from Joseph Severn to John Taylor, 6 March 1821, in H. E. Rollins (ed.) ‘The Letters of John Keats’ (1958) vol. 2, p. 378

Here lies one whose name was writ in water.

Epitaph for himself, in Richard Monckton Milnes ‘Life, Letters and Literary Remains of John Keats’ (1848) vol. 2, p. 91.

11.15 John Keble 1792-1866

The voice that breathed o’er Eden, That earliest wedding-day,

The primal marriage blessing, It hath not passed away.

‘Holy Matrimony’ (1869)

The trivial round, the common task, Would furnish all we ought to ask;

Room to deny ourselves; a road To bring us, daily, nearer God.

‘The Christian Year’ (1827) ‘Morning’

There is a book, who runs may read, Which heavenly truth imparts,

And all the lore its scholars need, Pure eyes and Christian hearts.

‘The Christian Year’ (1827) ‘Septuagesima’

If the Church of England were to fail, it would be found in my parish.

In D. Newsome ‘The Parting of Friends’ (1966) p. 395

11.16 George Keith, 5th Earl Marischal 1553-1623

They haif said: Quhat say they? Lat thame say.

Motto of the Earls Marischal of Scotland, inscribed at Marischal College, founded by the fifth Earl at Aberdeen in 1593; a similarly defiant motto in Greek has been found engraved in remains from classical antiquity

11.17Frank B. Kellogg 1856-1937

See Aristide Briand (2.193)

11.18Hugh Kelly 1739-77

Of all the stages in a woman’s life, none is so dangerous as the period between her acknowledgment of a passion for a man, and the day set apart for her nuptials.

‘Memoirs of a Magadalen’ (1767)

Your people of refined sentiments are the most troublesome creatures in the world to deal with.

‘False Delicacy’ (performed 1768)

11.19Thomas á Kempis (Thomas Hämmertein or Hämmerken 1380-1741) 1380-1471

See Thomas (8.27) in Volume II

11.20Thomas Ken 1637-1711

Awake, my soul, and with the sun Thy daily stage of duty run.

Shake off dull sloth, and joyful rise To pay thy morning sacrifice.

‘Morning Hymn’ in Winchester College ‘Manual of Prayers’ (1695) but in use before 1674

Redeem thy mis-spent time that’s past, And live this day as if thy last.

‘Morning Hymn’ (1709 ed.) v. 2

All praise to thee, my God, this night, For all the blessings of the light;

Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings, Beneath thy own almighty wings.

‘Evening Hymn’ in Winchester College ‘Manual of Prayers’ (1695) but in use before 1674 (the first line later changed to ‘Glory to thee, my God this night’)

Teach me to live, that I may dread The grave as little as my bed.

‘Evening Hymn’ in Winchester College ‘Manual of Prayers’ (1695) but in use before 1674

11.21 John F. Kennedy 1917-63

We stand today on the edge of a new frontier...But the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them.

Speech accepting the Democratic nomination in Los Angeles, 15 July 1960, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 August 1960, p. 611

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 February 1961, p. 226

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 February 1961, p. 226

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 February 1961, p. 227

All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.

Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 February 1961, p. 227

Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, ‘rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation’—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 February 1961, p. 227

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, in ‘Vital Speeches’ 1 February 1961, p. 227. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., speaking at Keene, New Hampshire, 30 May 1884 said: ‘We pause to...recall what our country has done for each of us and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return’; but the form of words chosen by

O! they’re all fled with thee, Robin Adair.

‘Robin Adair’

11.25 Jack Kerouac 1922-69

Sitting around trying to think up the meaning of the Lost Generation and the subsequent Existentialism...I said, ‘You know, this is really a beat generation.’

‘Playboy’ June 1959, p. 32.

11.26 Ralph Kettell 1563-1643

Here is Hey for Garsington! and Hey for Cuddesdon! and Hey Hockley! but here’s nobody cries, Hey for God Almighty!

Sermon at Garsington Revel, in Oliver Lawson Dick (ed.) ‘Aubrey’s Brief Lives’ (1949) ‘Ralph Kettell’

11.27 Francis Scott Key 1779-1843

’Tis the star-spangled banner; O long may it wave O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ (1814)

11.28 Maynard Keynes (John Maynard Keynes, first Baron Keynes of Tilton) 1883-1946

I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Letter to Duncan Grant, 15 December 1917, in ‘British Library Add. MSS 57931’ fo. 119

He felt about France what Pericles felt of Athens—unique value in her, nothing else mattering; but his theory of politics was Bismarck’s. He had one illusion—France; and one disillusion— mankind, including Frenchmen, and his colleagues not least.

‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (1919) ch. 3 (on Clemenceau)

Like Odysseus, the President looked wiser when he was seated.

‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (1919) ch. 3 (on Woodrow Wilson)

Lenin was right. There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.

‘The Economic Consequences of the Peace’ (1919) ch. 6

I do not know which makes a man more conservative—to know nothing but the present, or nothing but the past.

‘The End of Laissez-Faire’ (1926) pt. 1

Marxian Socialism must always remain a portent to the historians of opinion—how a doctrine so illogical and so dull can have exercised so powerful and enduring an influence over the minds of men, and, through them, the events of history.

‘The End of Laissez-Faire’ (1926) pt. 3

The important thing for Government is not to do things which individuals are doing already,

and to do them a little better or a little worse; but to do those things which at present are not done at all.

‘The End of Laissez-Faire’ (1926) pt. 4

I think that capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable.

‘The End of Laissez-Faire’ (1926) pt. 5

This extraordinary figure of our time, this syren, this goat-footed bard, this half-human visitor to our age from the hag-ridden magic and enchanted woods of Celtic antiquity.

‘Essays in Biography’ (1933) ‘Mr Lloyd George’

The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood...Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.

‘The General Theory of Employment’ (1947 ed.) ch. 24

In the long run we are all dead.

‘A Tract on Monetary Reform’ (1923) ch. 3

11.29 Nikita Khrushchev 1894-1971

If anyone believes that our smiles involve abandonment of the teaching of Marx, Engels and Lenin he deceives himself. Those who wait for that must wait until a shrimp learns to whistle.

Speech in Moscow, 17 September 1955, in ‘New York Times’ 18 September 1955, p. 19

We say this not only for the socialist states, who are more akin to us. We base ourselves on the idea that we must peacefully co-exist. About the capitalist States, it doesn’t depend on you whether or not we exist. If you don’t like us, don’t accept our invitations and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.

Speech to Western diplomats at reception in Moscow for Polish leader Mr Gomulka, 18 November 1956, in ‘The Times’ 19 November 1956

Anyone who believes that the worker can be lulled by fine revolutionary phrases is mistaken....

If no concern is shown for the growth of material and spiritual riches, the people will listen today, they will listen tomorrow, and then they may say: ‘Why do you promise us everything for the future? You are talking, so to speak, about life beyond the grave. The priest has already told us about this.’

Speech at World Youth Forum, 19 September 1964, in ‘Pravda’ 22 September 1964

If one cannot catch the bird of paradise, better take a wet hen.

In ‘Time’ 6 January 1958

If you start throwing hedgehogs under me, I shall throw a couple of porcupines under you.

In ‘New York Times’ 7 November 1963

11.30 Joyce Kilmer 1886-1918

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

‘Trees’

Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

‘Trees’

11.31 Lord Kilmuir (Sir David Maxwell Fyfe) 1900-67

Loyalty is the Tory’s secret weapon.

In Anthony Sampson ‘Anatomy of Britain’ (1962) ch. 6

11.32 Francis Kilvert 1840-79

Of all noxious animals, too, the most noxious is a tourist. And of all tourists the most vulgar, ill-bred, offensive and loathsome is the British tourist.

W. Plomer (ed.) ‘Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert’ (1938-40) 5 April 1870

The Vicar of St Ives says the smell of fish there is sometimes so terrific as to stop the church clock.

W. Plomer (ed.) ‘Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert’ (1938-40) 21 July 1870

It is a fine thing to be out on the hills alone. A man can hardly be a beast or a fool alone on a great mountain.

W. Plomer (ed.) ‘Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert’ (1938-40) 29 May 1871

An angel satyr walks these hills.

W. Plomer (ed.) ‘Selections from the Diary of the Rev. Francis Kilvert’ (1938-40) 20 June 1871 (on ‘the Black Mountain’ in Wales)

11.33 Benjamin Franklin King 1857-94

Nothing to do but work, Nothing to eat but food, Nothing to wear but clothes To keep one from going nude.

Nothing to breathe but air, Quick as a flash ’t is gone; Nowhere to fall but off,

Nowhere to stand but on.

‘The Pessimist’

Nowhere to go but out, Nowhere to come but back.

‘The Pessimist’

11.34 Henry King 1592-1669