Quotes from John Masefield

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

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

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.

Love is a flame to set the will on fire

It is too maddening. I've got to fly off, right now, to some devilish navy yard, three hours in a seasick steamer, and after being heartily sick, I'll have to speak three times, and then I'll be sick coming home. Still, who would not be sick for England?

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

There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see.

Man with his burning soul Has but an hour of breath To build a ship of Truth In which his soul may sail- Sail on the sea of death. For death takes toll Of beauty, courage, youth, Of all but Truth.

All the great things of life are swiftly done, Creation, death, and love the double gate. However much we dawdle in the sun We have to hurry at the touch of Fate.

Best trust the happy moments. ... The days that make us happy make us wise.

Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.

The luck will alter and the star will rise.

Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once a minute something generous dies for want of it.

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

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.

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

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

I have seen flowers come in stony placesAnd kind things done by men with ugly faces, And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races, So I trust, too.

What am I, Life? A thing of watery salt Held in cohesion by unresting cells, Which work they know not why, which never halt, Myself unwitting where their Master dwells?

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

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

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