“Feign then what's by a decent tact believed
And act that state is only so conceived,
And build an edifice of form
For house where phantoms may keep warm.”
Source: This Last Pain' (1930), Line 29.
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William Empson 25
English literary critic and poet 1906–1984Related quotes
Notebook entry (1948), published in Partisan Review: 50th Anniversary Edition, ed. William Philips (1985)

“The act of reading is a partnership. The author builds a house, but the reader makes it a home.”
Source: Between the Lines

Astronomical Observations relating to the Construction of the Heavens... (1811), p. 318

“The proper form of economy must be observed in building houses for each and every class.”
Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book I, Chapter II, Sec. 9
Source: The Nature of Geography (1939), p. 215-216; as cited in: John A. Agnew, James S. Duncan (2011) The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Human Geography. p. 122