• Shel Silverstein

    Stupid Pencil Maker

    Some dummy built this pencil wrong,
    The eraser’s down here where the point belongs,
    And the point’s at the top – so it’s no good to me,
    It’s amazing how stupid some people can be.

  • Sir Arthur Eddington

    We used to think that if we knew one, we knew two, because one and one are two. We are finding that we must learn a great deal more about ‘and’.

  • Nennius

    The Seven Ages.

    The lives of three Wattles, the life of a hound.
    The lives of three Hounds the life of a Steed.
    The lives of three Steeds the life of a Man.
    The lives of three Men, the life of an Eagle.
    The lives of three Eagles the life of a Yew.
    The lives of three Yews, The length of of an Age,
    Seven Ages from Creation to doom.

  • John Adams

    I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

  • Mark Twain

    Poor Huck was too distressed to smile, but the old man laughed loud and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot, and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a man’s pocket, because it cut down on the doctor’s bills like everything.

  • Osip Mandelstam

    You took away all the oceans and all the room.
    You gave me my shoe-size in earth with bars around it.
    Where did it get you? Nowhere.
    You left me my lips, and they shape words, even in silence.

  • Charles Dickens

    It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

    opening paragrapgh of “A Tale of Two Cities”

  • Christopher Morley

    Tit for Tat

    I often pass a gracious tree
    Whose name I can’t identify,
    But still I bow, in courtesy
    It waves a bough, in kind reply.

    I do not know your name, O tree
    (Are you a hemlock or a pine?)
    But why should that embarrass me?
    Quite probably you don’t know mine.

  • Henry David Thoreau

    Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

  • Edward Thomas

    Adlestrop

    Yes, I remember Adlestrop —
    The name, because one afternoon
    Of heat the express-train drew up there
    Unwontedly. It was late June.

    The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
    No one left and no one came
    On the bare platform. What I saw
    Was Adlestrop — only the name

    And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
    And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
    No whit less still and lonely fair
    Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

    And for that minute a blackbird sang
    Close by, and round him, mistier,
    Farther and farther, all the birds
    Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

  • Katharine Butler Hathaway

    It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following your deepest instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin.

  • Pierre Auguste Renoir

    They tell you that a tree is only a combination of chemical elements. I prefer to believe that God created it, and that it is inhabited by a nymph.

  • Piet Hein

    Wanting To Be Able To

    ‘Impossibilities’ are good
    not to attach that label to;
    since, correctly understood,
    if we wanted to, we would
    be able to be able to.

  • W.H. Auden

    Every high C accurately struck demolishes the theory that we are the irresponsible puppets of fate or chance.

  • Who Killed Cock Robin

    Who killed Cock Robin?
    “I,” said the Sparrow
    With my bow and arrow,
    I killed Cock Robin”

    Who saw him die?
    “I,” said the Fly,
    “With my little eye,
    I saw him die”

    Who caught his blood?
    “I,” said the Fish,
    “With my little dish,
    I caught his blood …”

    Who’ll make his shroud?
    “I,” said the Beetle,
    “With my thread and needle,
    I’ll make his shroud.”

    Who’ll dig his grave?
    “I,” said the Owl,
    “With my spade and trowel,
    I’ll dig his grave.”

    Who’ll be the parson?
    “I,” said the Rook,
    “With my little book.
    I’ll be the parson.”

    Who’ll be the clerk?
    “I,” said the Lark,
    “I’ll say Amen in the dark;
    I’ll be the clerk.”

    Who’ll be chief mourner?
    “I,” said the Dove,
    “I mourn for my love;
    I’ll be chief mourner.”

    Who’ll bear the torch?
    “I,” said the Linnet,
    “I’ll come in a minute,
    I’ll bear the torch.”

    Who’ll sing his dirge?
    “I,” said the Thrush,
    “As I sing in the bush
    I’ll sing his dirge.”

    Who’ll bear the pall?
    “We,” said the Wren,
    Both the Cock and the Hen;
    “We’ll bear the pall.”

    Who’ll carry his coffin?
    “I,” said the Kite,
    “If it be in the night,
    I’ll carry his coffin.”

    Who’ll toll the bell?
    “I,” said the Bull,
    “Because I can pull,
    I’ll toll the bell.”

    All the birds of the air
    Fell to sighing and sobbing
    When they heard the bell toll
    For poor Cock Robin.

  • Goethe

    To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking.

  • Wendy Cope

    The Uncertainty of the poet

    I am a poet.
    I am very fond of bananas.

    I am bananas.
    I am very fond of a poet.

    I am a poet of bananas.
    I am very fond.

    A fond poet of ‘I am, I am’-
    Very bananas.

    Fond of ‘Am I bananas?
    Am I?’-a very poet.

    Bananas of a poet!
    Am I fond? Am I very?

    Poet bananas! I am.
    I am fond of a ‘very.’

    I am of very fond bananas.
    Am I a poet?

  • Johannes Brahms

    When ideas come to you, go for a walk; then you’ll discover that the thing you thought was a complete idea was actually only the beginning of a much larger one …