John Betjeman Quotes

18 quotes in 273 categories

• Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sights, before the dark hour of reason grows.
• Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.
• Ludlow....is probably the loveliest town in England with its hill of Georgian houses ascending from the river Teme to the great tower of the cross-shaped…
• What the Londoner sees in his mind’s eye is that cluster of towers and pinnacles seen from Pentonville Hill and outlined against a foggy sunset,…
• 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…
• 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.
• I ought to warn you that my verse is of no interest to people who can think.
• Hymns are the poetry of the people.
• Topography is one of my chief themes in my poetry..about the country, the suburbs and the seaside... then there come's love... and increasingly; the fear…
• There are two thing you need for a jolly good hymn.The first is a set of words that expresses the mood or sentiment of the…
• Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music..
• One mark of good verse is surprise
• I have a Vision of the Future, chum. The workers flats in fields of soya beans tower up like silver pencils, score on score.
• People's backyards are much more interesting than their front gardens, and houses that back on to railways are public benefactors.
• I don't think I am any good. If I thought I was any good, I wouldn't be.
• History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.
• Silver and ermine and red faces full of port wine.
• Air like wine

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