"The Figure of the Youth as Virile Poet"
The Necessary Angel (1951)
Context: It may be dismissed, on the one hand, as a commonplace aesthetic satisfaction: and, on the other hand, if we say that the idea of God is merely a poetic idea, even if the supreme poetic idea, and that our notions of heaven and hell are merely poetry not so called, even if poetry that involves us vitally, the feeling of deliverance, of a release, of a perfection touched, of a vocation so that all men may know the truth and that the truth may set them free — if we say these things and if we are able to see the poet who achieved God and placed Him in His seat in heaven in all His glory, the poet himself, still in the ecstasy of the poem that completely accomplished its purpose, would have seemed, whether young or old, whether in rags or ceremonial robe, a man who needed what he had created, uttering the hymns of joy that followed his creation. This may be a gross exaggeration of a very simple matter. But perhaps the same is true of many of the more prodigious things of life and death.
“Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else.”
“Death is simple. Life is messy. Give me life, the more complicated the better.”
As cited in: Derek Austin (1977) "Perspective paper: Library Science" in: Donald E. Walker et al. eds. Natural language in information science. p. 48
Classification and indexing in the social sciences (1963)
“I have a very simple creed: that life and joy and beauty are better than dusty death”
Ninetieth birthday celebration speech, 18 May 1962
1960s
Context: Friends,
I have a very simple creed: that life and joy and beauty are better than dusty death. This is an occasion that I hardly know how to find words for. I am more touched than I can say, and more deeply than I can ever hope to express. I have to give my very warmest possible thanks to those who have worked to produce this occasion: to the performers, whose exquisite music, exquisitely performed, was so full of delight; to those who worked in less conspicuous ways, like my friend Mr Schoenman; and to all those who have given me gifts – gifts which are valuable in themselves, and also as expressions of an undying hope for this dangerous world.
I have a very simple creed: that life and joy and beauty are better than dusty death, and I think when we listen to such music as we heard today we must all of us feel that the capacity to produce such music, and the capacity to hear such music, is a thing worth preserving and should not be thrown away in foolish squabbles. You may say it's a simple creed, but I think everything important is very simple indeed. I've found that creed sufficient, and I should think that a great many of you would also find it sufficient, or else you would hardly be here.
But now I just want to say how it's difficult, when one has embarked upon a course which invites a greater or less degree of persecution and obloquy and abuse, to find instead that one is welcomed as I have been today. It makes one feel rather humble, and I feel I must try to live up to the feelings that have produced this occasion. I hope I shall; and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Source: Blood Music (1985), Chapter 41 (p. 219)
“Chocolate is not a matter of life and death--it's more important than that.”
Source: At Last
Quoted in Strength and Diet https://books.google.it/books?id=uexsAAAAMAAJ by Francis Albert Rollo Russell (London: Longmans, Green, & Co, 1905), p. 2.
“The importance of conventional life is greatly exaggerated and a good death can do wonders.”
An Arrow to the Heart. pg. 140. (2007). (Topic: Life)
“There appear to be as many learning styles among prodigies as there are prodigies to express them.”
How to Raise a Prodigy, The New Yorker (2018)
