• George Herbert

    The World

    Love built a stately house, where Fortune came,
    And spinning fancies, she was heard to say
    That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
    Whereas they were supported by the same;
    But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.

    The Pleasure came, who, liking not the fashion,
    Began to make balconies, terraces,
    Till she had weakened all by alteration;
    But reverend laws, and many a proclamation
    Reformed all at length with menaces.

    Then entered Sin, and with that sycamore
    Whose leaves first sheltered man from drought and dew,
    Working and winding slily evermore,
    The inward walls and summers cleft and tore;
    But Grace shored these, and cut that as it grew.

    Then Sin combined with death in a firm band,
    To raze the building to the very floor;
    Which they effected, – none could them withstand;
    But Love and Grace took Glory by the hand,
    And built a braver palace than before.

  • Ernest Hemingway

    Ernest Hemingway was bet $10 that he could not write a story in six words. He won the bet with the following:

    For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

  • Chris Mullin MP

    Chris Mullin noticed the following hand written note on an invitation to and event that he was attending….

    “This is a very low priority. I suggest we pass it to Chris Mullin”

  • Lewis F Richardson

    Big Whorls Have Little Whorls

    Big whorls have little whorls
    That feed on their velocity,
    And little whorls have lesser whorls
    And so on to viscosity.

    This poem summarises Richardson’s 1920 paper ‘The supply of energy from and to Atmospheric Eddies’

  • W H Auden

    The Unknown Citizen

    He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
    One against whom there was no official complaint,
    And all the reports on his conduct agree
    That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
    For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
    Except for the War till the day he retired
    He worked in a factory and never got fired,
    But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
    Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
    For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
    (Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
    And our Social Psychology workers found
    That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
    The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
    And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
    Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
    And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
    Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
    He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
    And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
    A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
    Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
    That he held the proper opinions for he time of year;
    When there was peace, he was for peace; when there was war, he went.
    He was married and added five children to the population,
    Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
    And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
    Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
    Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

  • Henri Matisse

    A lady visited Matisse in his studio. Inspecting one of his latest works she unwisely said: “But surely the arm of this woman is much too long”; “Madame,” the artist replied, “you are mistaken. This is not a woman, this is a picture.”

  • Oliver Hereford

    G K Chesterton

    When Plain Folk, such as you or I,
    See the Sun sinking in the sky,
    We think it is the Setting Sun,
    But Mr. Gilbert Chesterton
    Is not so easily misled.
    He calmly stands upon his head,
    And upside down obtains a new
    And Chestertonian point of view,
    Observing thus, how from his toes
    The sun creeps nearer to his nose,
    He cries with wonder and delight,
    “How Grand the SUNRISE is to-night!”

  • Philip Larkin

    Ignorance

    Strange to know nothing, never to be sure
    Of what is true or right or real,
    But forced to qualify or so I feel,
    Or Well, it does seem so:
    Someone must know.

    Strange to be ignorant of the way things work:
    Their skill at finding what they need,
    Their sense of shape, and punctual spread of seed,
    And willingness to change;
    Yes, it is strange,

    Even to wear such knowledge – for our flesh
    Surrounds us with its own decisions –
    And yet spend all our life on imprecisions,
    That when we start to die
    Have no idea why.

  • G K Chesterton

    I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

  • Ezra Pound

    In a Station of the Metro

    The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
    Petals on a wet, black bough.

  • Oliver Herford

    A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but even… without any hope of doing it well.

  • Stephen Crane

    I Met a Seer

    I met a seer.
    He held in his hands
    The book of wisdom.
    “Sir,” I addressed him,
    “Let me read.”
    “Child — ” he began.
    “Sir,” I said,
    “Think not that I am a child,
    For already I know much
    Of that which you hold.
    Aye, much.”

    He smiled.
    Then he opened the book
    And held it before me. —
    Strange that I should have grown so suddenly blind.

  • Arthur Schopenhauer

    Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

  • Thomas Hardy

    A Thunderstorm in Town

    She wore a ‘terra-cotta’ dress,
    And we stayed, because of the pelting storm,
    Within the hansom’s dry recess,
    Though the horse had stopped; yea, motionless
    We sat on, snug and warm.

    Then the downpour ceased, to my sharp sad pain,
    And the glass that had screened our forms before
    Flew up, and out she sprang to her door:
    I should have kissed her if the rain
    Had lasted a minute more.

  • Galileo

    The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

  • W H Auden

    When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a room full of dukes.