Quotes from William Edgar Stafford

Between roars the lion purrs.

Some people are blinded by their experience. Soldiers know how important war is. Owners of slaves learn every day how inferior subject peoples are.

Reluctant hero, drafted again each Fourth of July, I'll bow and remember you. Who shall we follow next? Who shall we kill next time?

So, the world happens twice-- once what we see it as; second it legends itself deep, the way it is.

Can injustice one way be corrected without the interim reaction that tries to impose injustice the other way?

Politicians need citizens who will permit them to behave reasonably.

Those times you caught them out and showed them up -- they learned how stupid they are. But now you'll never hear the little song of their purring throats, and you'll never know what they think, when you say hello.

Children of heroes have glory for breakfast.

Protest poetry -- could there be consensus poetry?

Save the world by torturing one innocent child? Which innocent child?

Keep a journal, and don't assume that your work has to accomplish anything worthy: artists and peace-workers are in it for the long haul, and not to be judged by immediate results.

Once you decide to do right, life is easy, there are no distractions.

The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.

If you don't know the kind of person I am and I don't know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.

If it should happen you wake up and Armageddon has come, lie still.

Those who champion democracy, but make a fetish of never accepting anything they don't agree with -- what advantage do they see in democracy?