Witter Bynner Quotes

A leader is best when people barely know that he exists.

I am a miser of my memories of you And will not spend them.

The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small.

A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick.

Caressing reassures lovers that their love endures.

Existence is beyond the power of words to define: Terms may be used But are none of them absolute.

Name me no names for my disease, With uninforming breath; I tell you I am none of these, But homesick unto death —Homesick for hills that I had known, For brooks that I had crossed, Before I met this flesh and bone And followed and was lost… .And though they break my heart at last, Yet name no name of ills. Say only, “Here is where he passed, Seeking again those hills.

O, high the happy bosom heaves When love is in the dancer!

Words came out of the womb of matter; And whether a man dispassionately Sees to the core of life Or passionately Sees the surface, The core and the surface Are essentially the same, Words making them seem different . . .