Archibald MacLeish
Poet
1892-05-07 – 1982-04-20
American poet, playwright, and public intellectual who served as Librarian of Congress and later as assistant secretary of state. His writing spanned lyric poetry, drama, and political commentary, and he received multiple Pulitzer Prizes. He was an important literary and civic voice in the mid-20th century.
Quotes by Archibald MacLeish
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As things are now going, the peace we will make, the peace we seem to be making, will be a peace of oil, a peace of gold, a peace of shipping, a peace, in brief... without moral purpose or human interest.
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What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.
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What is more important to a library than anything else -- than everything else -- is the fact that it ex
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What is more important to a library than anything else -- than everything else -- is the fact that it exists., American Scholar; Washington, DC, June 5, 1972]
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A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard -- by stealing what he has a taste for, and can carry off
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A poem should not meanBut be.
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Around, around the sun we go:The moon goes round the earth.We do not die of death:We die of vertigo.
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And here face down beneath the sunAnd here upon earth's noonward heightTo feel the always coming onThe always rising of the night
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What is more important to a library than anything else -- than everything else -- is the fact that it exists., American Scholar; Washington, DC, June 5, 1972]
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A poem should not meanBut be.
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A real writer learns from earlier writers the way a boy learns from an apple orchard -- by stealing what he has a taste for, and can carry off
Read quote -
What is freedom? Freedom is the right to choose: the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice. Without the possibility of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.
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And here face down beneath the sunAnd here upon earth's noonward heightTo feel the always coming onThe always rising of the night
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What is more important to a library than anything else -- than everything else -- is the fact that it ex
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As things are now going, the peace we will make, the peace we seem to be making, will be a peace of oil, a peace of gold, a peace of shipping, a peace, in brief... without moral purpose or human interest.
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Around, around the sun we go:The moon goes round the earth.We do not die of death:We die of vertigo.
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Once you permit those who are convinced of their own superior rightness to censor and silence and suppress those who hold contrary opinions, just at that moment the citadel has been surrendered.
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We have no choice but to be guilty. God is unthinkable if we are innocent.
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What once was cuddled must learn to kiss, The cold worm's mouth. That's all the mystery.
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A poem should not mean But be.
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