“The soul has no assignments, neither cooks
Nor referees: it wastes its time.”

— Randall Jarrell

"A Girl in a Library," lines 32-29
The Seven-League Crutches (1951)
Context: The soul has no assignments, neither cooks
Nor referees: it wastes its time. It wastes its time.
Here in this enclave there are centuries
For you to waste: the short and narrow stream
Of life meanders into a thousand valleys
Of all that was, or might have been, or is to be.
The books, just leafed through, whisper endlessly.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Randall Jarrell 215

poet, critic, novelist, essayist 1914–1965

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This is widely attributed to Jackson on the internet, but in research done for Wikiquote, no published source has been found. Similar remarks, "Corporations have neither bodies to be punished, nor souls to be condemned, they therefore do as they like." and "It has no soul to damn and no body to kick." have been attributed to Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow (9 December 1731 – 12 September 1806).
Disputed

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W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright

King and No King http://poetry.poetryx.com/poems/1521/
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Penguin Island (1908)
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