Stephen Vincent Benét quotes - page 2

A man with a mouth like a mastiff, a brow like a mountain and eyes like burning anthracite - that was Dan'l Webster in his prime. And the biggest case he argued never got written down in the books, for he argued it against the devil, nip and tuck and no holds barred. And this is the way I used to hear it told. (Stephen Vincent Benét)
For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet's heat, For the ropes that choke, the manacles that bind, The huge voice, metal, that lies from a thousand tubes And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
She stood there, and at once I knew The bitter thing that I must do. There could be no surrender now; Though Sleep and Death were whispering low. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
I went north - I did not try to hide myself. When a god or a demon saw me, then I would die, but meanwhile I was no longer afraid. My hunger for knowledge burned in me - there was so much that I could not understand. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city - poor gods, poor gods! View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits, The dawn, a crimson cataract, burst through the eastern gates, The cliffs were robed in scarlet, the sands were cinnabar, Where first two men spread wings for flight and dared the hawk afar. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
For those who planned and were leaders and were beaten And for those, humble and stupid, who had no plan But were denounced, but were angry, but told a joke, But could not explain, but were sent away to the camp, But had their bodies shipped back in the sealed coffins, "Died of pneumonia." View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
I have been in the Place of the Gods and seen it! Now slay me, if it is the law - but still I know they were men. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
The time is - time. The place is anywhere. The voices speak to you across the air To say that once again a child is born. A child is born. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong. We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. We thought the long train would run to the end of Time. We thought the light would increase. Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it. Now the boar and the asp have power in our time. Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid. Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
He knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone. And he could see that Mr. Scratch knew it too. (Stephen Vincent Benét)
I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men - they went a dark road, but they were men. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
Talking so quietly; when they hear the cars And the knock at the door, and they look at each other quickly And the woman goes to the door with a stiff face, Smoothing her dress. "We are all good citizens here. We believe in the Perfect State." View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
You will have money and all that money can buy. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence ... but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
Eternally the choking steam goes up From the black pools of seething oil... View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
A soul. A soul is nothing. Can you see it, smell it, touch it? No. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
For all those beaten, for the broken heads, The fosterless, the simple, the oppressed, The ghosts in the burning city of our time... View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
We are the earth his word must sow like wheat And, if it finds no earth, it cannot grow. We are his earth, the mortal and the dying, Led by no star - the sullen and the slut, The thief, the selfish man, the barren woman, Who have betrayed him once and will betray him, Forget his words, be great a moment's space Under the strokes of chance, And then sink back into our small affairs. And yet, unless we go, his message fails. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
Never have I been so much alone - I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird - alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
I went fasting, as is the law. My body hurt but not my heart. When the dawn came, I was out of sight of the village. I prayed and purified myself, waiting for a sign. The sign was an eagle. It flew east. Sometimes signs are sent by bad spirits. I waited again on the flat rock, fasting, taking no food. I was very still - I could feel the sky above me and the earth beneath. I waited till the sun was beginning to sink. Then three deer passed in the valley going east - they did not mind me or see me. There was a white fawn with them - a very great sign. (Stephen Vincent Benét)
We heard the shots in the night But nobody knew next day what the trouble was And a man must go to his work. So I didn't see him For three days, then, and me near out of my mind And all the patrols on the streets with their dirty guns And when he came back, he looked drunk, and the blood was on him. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
For those denounced by their smug, horrible children For a peppermint-star and the praise of the Perfect State, For all those strangled, gelded or merely starved To make perfect states; for the priest hanged in his cassock, The Jew with his chest crushed in and his eyes dying, The revolutionist lynched by the private guards To make perfect states, in the names of the perfect states. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
She is all peace, all quiet, All passionate desires, the eloquent thunder Of new, glad suns, shouting aloud for joy, Over fresh worlds and clean, trampling the air Like stooping hawks, to the long wind of horns, Flung from the bastions of Eternity... And she is the low lake, drowsy and gentle, And good words spoken from the tongues of friends, And calmness in the evening, and deep thoughts, Falling like dreams from the stars' solemn mouths. All these. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét
Was it not better so to lie? The fight was done. Even gods tire Of fighting... My way was the wrong. Now I should drift and drift along To endless quiet, golden peace... And let the tortured body cease.And then a light winked like an eye. . . . And very many miles away A girl stood at a warm, lit door, Holding a lamp. Ray upon ray It cloaked the snow with perfect light. And where she was there was no night Nor could be, ever. God is sure, And in his hands are things secure. View quote
Stephen Vincent Benét