John Masefield Quotes

I have seen the Lady April bringing the daffodils, Bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow rover, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir, Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine, With a cargo of ivory, And apes and peacocks, Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

I hold that when a person dies / His soul returns again to earth; / Arrayed in some new flesh disguise / Another mother gives him birth / With sturdier limbs and brighter brain.

O lovely lily clean, O lily springing green, O lily bursting white, Dear lily of delight, Spring in my heart agen That I may flower to men.

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down.

The three foundations of judgement: Bold Design, Constant Practice, and Frequent Mistakes.

Success is the brand on the brow of the man who aimed too low.

What am I, Life? A thing of watery salt Held in cohesion by unresting cells, Which work they know not why, which never halt, Myself unwitting where their Master dwells?

To most of us the future seems unsure. But then it always has been; and we who have seen great changes must have great hopes.

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to sail her by.

Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the amusement and delight of the few.

I have seen flowers come in stony places And kind things done by men with ugly faces, And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races, So I trust, too.

The days that make us happy make us wise

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries; I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes. For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills, And April's in the West wind, and daffodils.

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.

The distant soul can shake the distant friend's soul and make the longing felt, over untold miles.

Humans consist of body, mind and imagination. Our bodies are faulty, our minds untrustworthy, but our imagination has made us remarkable.

There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see.

Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it.

Man's body is faulty, his mind untrustworthy, but his imagination has made him remarkable.

So shall I fight, so shall I tread, In this long war beneath the stars; So shall a glory wreathe my head, So shall I faint and show the scars, Until this case, this clogging mould, Be smithied all to kingly gold.

And he who gives a child a treat Makes joy-bells ring in Heaven's street, And he who gives a child a home Builds palaces in Kingdom come, And she who gives a baby birth Brings Saviour Christ again to Earth.

State are not made, nor patched; they grow; Grow slow through centuries of pain, And grow correctly in the main; But only grow by certain laws, Of certain bits in certain jaws.

Life is a long headache in a noisy street.

God warms his hands at man's heart when he prays.

God dropped a spark down into everyone, And if we find and fan it to a blaze, It'll spring up and glow, like--like the sun, And light the wandering out of stony ways.

My road leads me seawards To the white dipping sails.

Heaven to me's a fair blue stretch of sky, Earth's jest a dusty road.

The luck will alter and the star will rise.

It may be that we cease; we cannot tell. Even if we cease, life is a miracle.

Love is a flame to set the will on fire

Off Cape Horn there are but two kinds of weather, neither one of them a pleasant kind.

Each one could be a Jesus mild, Each one has been a little child, A little child with laughing look, A lovely white unwritten book; A book that God will take, my friend, As each goes out at journey's end.

The corn that makes the holy bread By which the soul of man is fed, The holy bread, the food unpriced, Thy everlasting mercy, Christ.

Commonplace people dislike tragedy because they dare not suffer and cannot exult.

The social states of human kinds Are made by multitudes of minds, And after multitudes of years A little human growth appears Worth having, even to the soul Who sees most plain it's not the whole.

His face was filled with broken commandments.

Lord, give to me who are old and rougher The things that little children suffer, And let keep bright and undefiled The young years of the little child.

Oh some are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French.

It is too maddening. I've got to fly off, right now, to some devilish navy yard, 3 hours in a seasick steamer, & after being heartily sick, I'll have to speak 3 times, & then be sick coming home. Still, who would not be sick for England?

And may we find when ended is the page, Death but a tavern on our pilgrimage.

Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.

In this life he laughs longest who laughs last.

I must go down to the sea again For the call of the running tide It's a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.

Only the road and the dawn, the sun, the wind, and the rain, And the watch fire under stars, and sleep, and the road again.

Love is a flame to burn out human wills, Love is a flame to set the will on fire, Love is a flame to cheat men into mire.

The Thames is a wretched river after the Mersey and the ships are not like Liverpool ships and the docks are barren of beauty ... it is a beastly hole after Liverpool; for Liverpool is the town of my heart and I would rather sail a mudflat there than command a clipper out of London

From '41 to '51I was my folk's contrary son;I bit my father's hand right throughAnd broke my mother's heart in two.