Stephen Vincent Benét: Trending quotes (page 3)

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“I only know that there was Pain,
Infinite and eternal Pain.
And that I fell — and rose again.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
Context: I stumbled, slipped... and all was gone
That I had gained. Once more I lay
Before the long bright Hell of ice.
And still the light was far away.
There was red mist before my eyes
Or I could tell you how I went
Across the swaying firmament,
A glittering torture of cold stars,
And how I fought in Titan wars...
And died... and lived again upon
The rack... and how the horses strain
When their red task is nearly done... I only know that there was Pain,
Infinite and eternal Pain.
And that I fell — and rose again.

Pain

“Something begins.
Something is full of change and sparkling stars.
Something is loosed that changes all the world.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Innkeeper's wife
A Child is Born (1942)
Context: I am not tired.
I am expectant as a runner is
Before a race, a child before a feast day,
A woman at the gates of life and death,
Expectant for us all, for all of us
Who live and suffer on this little earth
With such small brotherhood. Something begins.
Something is full of change and sparkling stars.
Something is loosed that changes all the world.

World , Star , Change

“We are the earth his word must sow like wheat
And, if it finds no earth, it cannot grow.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Innkeeper's wife
A Child is Born (1942)
Context: We are the earth his word must sow like wheat
And, if it finds no earth, it cannot grow.
We are his earth, the mortal and the dying,
Led by no star — the sullen and the slut,
The thief, the selfish man, the barren woman,
Who have betrayed him once and will betray him,
Forget his words, be great a moment's space
Under the strokes of chance,
And then sink back into our small affairs.
And yet, unless we go, his message fails.

“For those who still said "Red Front" or "God save the Crown!"
And for those who were not courageous
But were beaten nevertheless.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Litany for Dictatorships (1935)
Context: For those who still said "Red Front" or "God save the Crown!"
And for those who were not courageous
But were beaten nevertheless.
For those who spit out the bloody stumps of their teeth
Quietly in the hall,
Sleep well on stone or iron, watch for the time
And kill the guard in the privy before they die,
Those with the deep-socketed eyes and the lamp burning.

God , Courage

“If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so — it does not hurt them.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book By the Waters of Babylon

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)
Context: 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.

Thinking , Hurt

“And then a light winked like an eye.
. . . And very many miles away”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
Context: p>Was it not better so to lie?
The fight was done. Even gods tire
Of fighting... My way was the wrong.
Now I should drift and drift along
To endless quiet, golden peace...
And let the tortured body cease.And then a light winked like an eye.
... And very many miles away
A girl stood at a warm, lit door,
Holding a lamp. Ray upon ray
It cloaked the snow with perfect light.
And where she was there was no night
Nor could be, ever. God is sure,
And in his hands are things secure.</p

Light

“My people are the Hill People. They are the men.
I go into the Dead Places but I am not slain.
I take the metal from the Dead Places but I am not blasted.
I travel upon the god-roads and am not afraid.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book By the Waters of Babylon

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

God , Travel

“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 Benét

Innkeeper's wife
A Child is Born (1942)
Context: Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost
Minute by minute, day by dragging day,
In all the thousand, small, uncaring ways,
The smooth appeasing compromises of time,
Which are King Herod and King Herod's men,
Always and always. Life can be
Lost without vision but not lost by death,
Lost by not caring, willing, going on
Beyond the ragged edge of fortitude
To something more — something no man has ever seen.
Context: Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost
Minute by minute, day by dragging day,
In all the thousand, small, uncaring ways,
The smooth appeasing compromises of time,
Which are King Herod and King Herod's men,
Always and always. Life can be
Lost without vision but not lost by death,
Lost by not caring, willing, going on
Beyond the ragged edge of fortitude
To something more — something no man has ever seen.
You who love money, you who love yourself,
You who love bitterness, and I who loved
and lost and thought I could not love again,
And all the people of this little town,
Rise up! The loves we had were not enough.
Something is loosed to change the shaken world,
And with it we must change!

Life , Way

“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.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book The Devil and Daniel Webster

The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937)

Books , Way , Mountain

“On the highest steeps of Space he will have his dwelling-place,
In those far, terrific regions where the cold comes down like Death
Gleams the red glint of his pinions, smokes the vapor of his breath. Floating downward, very clear, still the echoes reach the ear
Of a little tune he whistles and a little song he sings,
Mounting, mounting still, triumphant, on his torn and broken wings!”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Young Adventure (1918), Winged Man

Death , Singing

“For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet's heat,
For the ropes that choke, the manacles that bind,
The huge voice, metal, that lies from a thousand tubes
And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Litany for Dictatorships (1935)

“She stood there, and at once I knew
The bitter thing that I must do.
There could be no surrender now;
Though Sleep and Death were whispering low.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Death , Sleep

“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.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book By the Waters of Babylon

Source: By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Hunger , God , Understanding , Knowledge

“The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits,
The dawn, a crimson cataract, burst through the eastern gates,
The cliffs were robed in scarlet, the sands were cinnabar,
Where first two men spread wings for flight and dared the hawk afar.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Source: Young Adventure (1918), Winged Man

Men

“Life was a storm to wander through.
I took the wrong way. Good and well,
At least my feet sought out not Hell!”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage

Life , Way , Hell

“He shall not come to conquest,
The conquest of kings,
But in the bare stable
He shall judge all things.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Innkeeper's wife, singing a song of prophecies
A Child is Born (1942)

“For those who planned and were leaders and were beaten
And for those, humble and stupid, who had no plan
But were denounced, but were angry, but told a joke,
But could not explain, but were sent away to the camp,
But had their bodies shipped back in the sealed coffins,
"Died of pneumonia."”

Stephen Vincent Benét

"Died trying to escape."
Litany for Dictatorships (1935)

Stupidity

“I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmédy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Source: "American Names" (1931)

Lie , Grass , Heart

“For the women who mourn their dead in the secret night,
For the children taught to keep quiet, the old children,
The children spat-on at school.
For the wrecked laboratory,
The gutted house, the dunged picture, the pissed-in well
The naked corpse of Knowledge flung in the square
And no man lifting a hand and no man speaking.”

Stephen Vincent Benét

Litany for Dictatorships (1935)

Women , Children , Secret , School

“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.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book By the Waters of Babylon

By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Men , God , Law