Stephen Vincent Benet
screenwriter, poet, novelist, writer, journalist
Read on Wikipedia1898 – 1943
All Quotes by Stephen Vincent Benet
“Dreaming men are haunted men.”
“I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.”
“She stood there, and at once I knew Though Sleep and Death were whispering low.”
“Life was a storm to wander through. At least my feet sought out not Hell!”
“I crawled. I could not speak or see The second Hell.”
“There was no pain when I awoke, And ever.”
“Oh dear and laughing, lost to me, Beneath the ever-living Tree.”
“This in my heart I keep for goad! Somewhere... in Heaven... she walks... that... road...”
“Eternally the choking steam goes up From the black pools of seething oil...”
“For ever... well... it droops the mouth. Till I Rest and green peace.”
“The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits, Where first two men spread wings for flight and dared the hawk afar.”
“Icarus, Icarus, though the end is piteous, See the first supernal glory, not the ruin hideous.”
“On the highest steeps of Space he will have his dwelling-place, Mounting, mounting still, triumphant, on his torn and broken wings!”
“For all those beaten, for the broken heads,The ghosts in the burning city of our time…”
“For those who still said "Red Front" or "God save the Crown!"Those with the deep-socketed eyes and the lamp burning.”
“For those slain at once.And found and killed at the end like rats in a drain.”
“For those who planned and were leaders and were beaten"Died of pneumonia." "Died trying to escape."”
“For those denounced by their smug, horrible childrenTo make perfect states, in the names of the perfect states.”
“Talking so quietly; when they hear the cars"We are all good citizens here. We believe in the Perfect State."”
“We heard the shots in the nightAnd when he came back, he looked drunk, and the blood was on him.”
“For the women who mourn their dead in the secret night,And no man lifting a hand and no man speaking.”
“For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet's heat,And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all.”
“A man with a mouth like a mastiff, a brow like a mountain and eyes like burning anthracite — that was Dan'l Webster in his prime. And the biggest case he argued never got written down in the books, for he argued it against the devil, nip and tuck and no holds barred. And this is the way I used to hear it told.”
“If two New Hampshiremen aren't a match for the devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians.”
“Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence … but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster.”
“He knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone. And he could see that Mr. Scratch knew it too.”
“A soul. A soul is nothing. Can you see it, smell it, touch it? No.”
“You will have money and all that money can buy.”
“If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so — it does not hurt them. I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings — that was hard and took a long time. My knowledge made me happy — it was like a fire in my heart. Most of all, I liked to hear of the Old Days and the stories of the gods.”
“My people are the Hill People. They are the men. I travel upon the god-roads and am not afraid.”
“Never have I been so much alone — I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird — alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods.”
“I went north — I did not try to hide myself. When a god or a demon saw me, then I would die, but meanwhile I was no longer afraid. My hunger for knowledge burned in me — there was so much that I could not understand.”
“When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city — poor gods, poor gods!”
“I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men — they went a dark road, but they were men.”
“I have been in the Place of the Gods and seen it! Now slay me, if it is the law — but still I know they were men.”
“The time is — time. The place is anywhere. A child is born.”
“He shall not come to conquest, He shall judge all things.”
“Outcasts of war, misfits, rebellious souls, And, meanwhile, we're the wheat between the stones.”
“I am not tired. Something is loosed that changes all the world.”
“Something begins, begins; Something is loosed to change the shaken world.”
“I see that I've said something you don't like, No Herods and no slaves.”
“We are the earth his word must sow like wheat And yet, unless we go, his message fails.”