I have fallen in love with American names, the sharp names that never get fat. Stephen Vincent Benet More Quotes by Stephen Vincent Benet More Quotes From Stephen Vincent Benet We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. Stephen Vincent Benet wisdom war peace Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost, Minute by minute, day by dragging day, In all the thousand, small, uncaring ways... Stephen Vincent Benet dying time life Our earth is but a small star in a great universe. Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexxed by war, untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, color or theory. Stephen Vincent Benet stars race war Bury my heart at Wounded Knee. Stephen Vincent Benet wounded-knee knees heart Remember that when you say "I will have non of this exile and this stranger for his face is not like my face and his speech is strange," you have denied America with that word. Stephen Vincent Benet speech faces america Truth is a hard deer to hunt. If you eat too much truth at once, you might die of the truth. Stephen Vincent Benet deer too-much might Broad-streeted Richmond . . . The trees in the streets are old trees used to living with people, Family trees that remember your grandfather's name. Stephen Vincent Benet names tree people Books are not men and yet they are alive. They are man's memory and his aspiration, the link between his present and his past, the tools he builds with. Stephen Vincent Benet learning memories book Sometimes a sign or a quote is simply interesting by itself and does not require anything beyond being framed on a page. Stephen Vincent Benet pages doe interesting One cannot balance tragedy in the scales Unless one weighs it with the tragic heart. Stephen Vincent Benet balance tragedy heart Honesty is as rare as a man without self-pity. Stephen Vincent Benet honesty self men Technology will never rescue anyone from being a bad poet, but if you're good, it has the potential to do a lot of exciting things. Stephen Vincent Benet rescue poet technology We do not fight for the real but for shadows we make. A flag is a piece of cloth and a word is a sound, But we make them something neither cloth nor a sound, Totems of love and hate, black sorcery-stones. Stephen Vincent Benet hate real war Since graveyards are often built over older burial grounds, I assume Dolores Park was probably an Indian, (an Ohlone) graveyard before that. I think the fact that it has so many layers underneath the contemporary one intrigues me. Stephen Vincent Benet layers facts thinking I've been reading a lot lately about Indian captives. One woman who had been captured by the Indians and made a squaw was resentful when she was rescued because she'd found that there was a lot more work to do as the wife of a white man. Stephen Vincent Benet white-man reading men Money is sullen And wisdom is sly, But youth is the pollen That blows through the sky And does not ask why. Stephen Vincent Benet blow doe sky Defeat is a fact and victory can be a fact. If the idea is good, it will survive defeat, it may even survive the victory. Stephen Vincent Benet victory may ideas I admire the attention other writers can give to the world we're walking in. Stephen Vincent Benet attention giving world Ironically the blog has re-opened the essay as a good form for me. I like to look and make commentary! If I sense my essays are good, I try to resubmit to another place in pulp and several of them have been variously published in newspapers and magazines. Stephen Vincent Benet magazines trying looks American Muse, whose strong and diverse heart So many men have tried to understand But only made it smaller with their art, Because you are as various as your land. Stephen Vincent Benet strong men art
