John Masefield Quotes

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

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.

Life is a long headache in a noisy street.

But Time and Tide and Buttered Eggs wait for no man.

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.

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.

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

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

Life's battle is a conquest for the strong; The meaning shows in the defeated thing.

Beauty you lifted up my sleeping eye And filled my heart with longing with a look.

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

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

I must go down to the sea again, for the call of the running tide, is a wild call and a clear call, that cannot be denied!

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

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

Love is a flame to set the will on fire

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.

The luck will alter and the star will rise.

In this life he laughs longest who laughs last.

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

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

When Life knocks at the door no one can wait,
When Death makes his arrest we have to go.

The days that make us happy make us wise.

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.

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.

Life, a beauty chased by tragic laughter.

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

Christmas ought to be brought up to date," Maria said. "It ought to have gangsters, and aeroplanes and a lot of automatic pistols.

People who leave their own time out of their work cannot be surprised if their time fails to find them interesting.

Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.

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

Most roads lead men homewards, My road leads me forth

His face was filled with broken commandments.

Death opens unknown doors. It is most grand to die.

My road leads me seawards To the white dipping sails.

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

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

But he has gone, A nation's memory and veneration, Among the radiant, ever venturing on, Somewhere, with morning, as such spirits will.

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

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

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.

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

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

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