Robinson Jeffers quotes - page 2

Here is a symbol in which Many high tragic thoughts Watch their own eyes. (Robinson Jeffers)
You ask what I am for and what I am against in Spain. I would give my right hand of course to prevent the agony; I would not give a flick of my little finger to help either side win. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Poetry is bound to concern itself chiefly with permanent aspects of life. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you fore-defeated Challengers of oblivion Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down, The square-limbed Roman letters Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide. The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel, formerly used to kill men, but here In the sense of a symbol. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Dear God, who are the whole splendor of things and the sacred stars, but also the cruelty and greed, the treacheries And vileness, insanities and filth and anguish: now that this thing comes near us again I am finding it hard To praise you with a whole heart. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Here from this mountain shore, headland beyond stormy headland plunging like dolphins through the blue sea-smoke Into pale sea - look west at the hill of water: it is half the planet: this dome, this half-globe, this bulging Eyeball of water, arched over to Asia, Australia and white Antarctica: those are the eyelids that never close; this is the staring unsleeping Eye of the earth; and what it watches is not our wars. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Know that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Love that, not man Apart from that, or else you will share man's pitiful confusions, or drown in despair when his days darken. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Oh pale and brittle pencils ever to try One grass-blade's curve, or the throat of one bird That clings to twig, ruffled against white sky. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
The world's in a bad way, my man, And bound to be worse before it mends. (Robinson Jeffers)
I think that one may contribute (ever so slightly) to the beauty of things by making one's own life and environment beautiful, as far as one's power reaches. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
I think, here is your emblem To hang in the future sky. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Fierce consciousness joined with final Disinterestedness; Life with calm death; the falcon's Realist eyes and act Married to the massive Mysticism of stone, Which failure cannot cast down Nor success make proud. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Vast is the night. How you have grown, dear night, walking your empty halls, how tall! View quote
Robinson Jeffers
I will have shepherds for my philosophers, Tall dreary men lying on the hills all night Watching the stars, let their dogs watch the sheep. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Science and mathematics Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it, They never touch it. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
The extraordinary patience of things! View quote
Robinson Jeffers
Would we could see all truly as it is; The calm eternal truth would keep us meek. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
The long migrations meet across you and it is nothing to you, you have forgotten us, mother. You were much younger when we crawled out of the womb and lay in the sun's eye on the tideline. (Robinson Jeffers)
Before there was any water there were tides of fire, both our tones flow from the older fountain. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
I suppose the desire for publication is a normal part of the instinct for writing... the writer sits at home, and the mere fact of being printed provides his verses with a kind of audience... So, having his vanity partially satisfied, he can go ahead and try better work. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose the least ugly faction; these evils are essential. To keep one's own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted and not wish for evil; and not be duped By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will not be fulfilled. View quote
Robinson Jeffers
We must uncenter our minds from ourselves; We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident As the rock and ocean that we were made from. View quote
Robinson Jeffers