John Betjeman quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by John Betjeman

John Betjeman Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from John Betjeman on Wise Famous Quotes.

It's strange that those we miss the most Are those we take for granted.

People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.

I ought to warn you that my verse is of no interest to people who can think.

I don't think I am any good. If I thought I was any good, I wouldn't be.

Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music..

Oh better far those echoing hells
Half-threaten'd in the pealing bells
Than that this 'I' should cease to be -

Hymns are the poetry of the people.

And marbled clouds go scudding by
The many-steepled London sky.

And now, dear Lord, I cannot wait Because I have a luncheon date.

Approval of what is approved of
Is as false as a well-kept vow.

Silver and ermine and red faces full of port wine.

Soft and sun-warm, see her glide

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Too many people in the modern world view poetry as a luxury, not a necessity like petrol. But to me it's the oil of life.

Oh Wasn't it naughty of Smudges? Oh, Mummy, I'm sick with disgust. She threww me in front of the judges, And my silly old collar-bone's bust.

Imprisoned in a cage of sound, even the trivial seems profound

On out deathbeds we're not going to regret all the work we didn't do. We're going to regret all the sex we didn't have!

One mark of good verse is surprise

Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.

I have a Vision of the Future, chum. The workers flats in fields of soya beans tower up like silver pencils, score on score.

A whispering and watery Norfolk sound
Telling of all the moonlit reeds around.

Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.