Robert Graves Quotes

"One gets to the heart of the matter by a series of experiences in the same pattern, but in different colors."

"Truth-loving Persians do not dwell uponThe trivial skirmish fought near Marathon."

"Anthropologists are a connecting link between poets and scientists; though their field-work among primitive peoples has often made them forget the language of science."

"Poetry is no more a narcotic than a stimulant; it is a universal bittersweet mixture for all possible household emergencies and its action varies accordingly as it is taken in a wineglass or a tablespoon, inhaled, gargled or rubbed on the chest . . ."

"Marriage, like money, is still with us; and, like money, progressively devalued."

"Prose books are the show dogs I breed and sell to support my cat."

"Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else."

"There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either."

"I was last in Rome in AD 540 when it was full of Goths and their heavy horses. It has changed a great deal since then."

"One smile relieves a heart that grievesthough deadly sad it be,and one hard look Can close the book that lovers love to see."

"To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession."

"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good."

"As you are woman, so be lovely:As you are lovely, so be various,Merciful as constant, constant as various,So be mine, as I yours for ever."

"Across two counties he can hear / And catch your words before you speak. / The woodlouse or the maggot's weak / Clamour rings in his sad ear, / And noise so slight it would surpass / Credence."

"No escape, / No such thing; to dream of new dimensions, / Cheating checkmate by painting the king's robe / So that he slides like a queen."

"`How is your trade, Aquarius, / This frosty night?' / `Complaints is many and various / And my feet are cold,' says Aquarius."