Philip Larkin quotes - page 2

You have to distinguish between things that seemed odd when they were new but are now quite familiar, such as Ibsen and Wagner, and things that seemed crazy when they were new and seem crazy now, like 'Finnegans Wake' and Picasso. (Philip Larkin)
The glare of that much-mentioned brilliance, love, Broke out, to show Its bright incipience sailing above, Still promising to solve, and satisfy, And set unchangeably in order. So To pile them back, to cry, Was hard, without lamely admitting how It had not done so then, and could not now. View quote
Philip Larkin
Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are. View quote
Philip Larkin
Uncontradicting solitude Supports me on its giant palm; And like a sea-anemone Or simple snail, there cautiously Unfolds, emerges, what I am. View quote
Philip Larkin
I have a sense of melancholy isolation, life rapidly vanishing, all the usual things. It's very strange how often strong feelings don't seem to carry any message of action. View quote
Philip Larkin
Above all, though, children are linked to adults by the simple fact that they are in process of turning into them. For this they may be forgiven much. Children are bound to be inferior to adults, or there is no incentive to grow up. View quote
Philip Larkin
They say eyes clear with age. View quote
Philip Larkin
What was the rock my gliding childhood struck, / And what bright unreal path has led me here? View quote
Philip Larkin
And I, whose childhood Is a forgotten boredom, Feel like a child Who comes on a scene Of adult reconciling, And can understand nothing But the unusual laughter, And starts to be happy. View quote
Philip Larkin
The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse -The good not done, the love not given, time Torn off unused-nor wretchedly because An only life can take so long to climb Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never; But at the total emptiness for ever, The sure extinction that we travel to And shall be lost in always. Not to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true. View quote
Philip Larkin
How little our careers express what lies in us, and yet how much time they take up. It's sad, really. (Philip Larkin)
I feel the only thing you can do about life is to preserve it, by art if you're an artist, by children if you're not. View quote
Philip Larkin
Originality is being different from oneself, not others. View quote
Philip Larkin
Home is so sad. It stays as it was left, / Shaped to the comfort of the last to go / As if to win them back. View quote
Philip Larkin
On me your voice falls as they say love should, Like an enormous yes. View quote
Philip Larkin
Rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless. View quote
Philip Larkin
Life has a practice of living you, if you don't live it. View quote
Philip Larkin
The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time. View quote
Philip Larkin
So many things I had thought forgotten Return to my mind with stranger pain: Like letters that arrive addressed to someone Who left the house so many years ago. View quote
Philip Larkin
The only way to eliminate unemployment is to eliminate unemployment benefits. View quote
Philip Larkin
I'd like to think...that people in pubs would talk about my poems. (Philip Larkin)
Since the majority of me Rejects the majority of you, Debating ends forthwith, and we Divide. View quote
Philip Larkin
But superstition, like belief, must die. View quote
Philip Larkin
I came to the conclusion that an enormous amount of research was needed to form an opinion on anything, & therefore I abandoned politics altogether as a topic of conversation. View quote
Philip Larkin
You know I don't care at all for politics, intelligently. View quote
Philip Larkin