James Kenneth Stephen famous quotes

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Birthdays? yes, in a general way; For the most if not for the best of men: You were born (I suppose) on a certain day: So was I: or perhaps in the night: what then?
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Birthday #Night #Men
To see Good Tennis! What divine joy Can fill our leisure, or our minds employ? Let other people play at other things; The King of Games is still the Game of Kings.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Kings #Games #Play
Will there never come a season Which shall rid us from the curse? Of a prose which knows no reason And an unmelodious verse: When the world shall cease to wonder At the genius of an Ass, And a boy's eccentric blunder Shall not bring success to pass: When mankind shall be delivered From the clash of magazines, And the inkstand shall be shivered Into countless smithereens: When there stands a muzzled stripling, Mute, beside a muzzled bore: When the Rudyards cease from Kipling And the Haggards Ride no more.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Boys #Genius #Magazines
There were two good fellows I used to know. --How distant it all appears! We played together in football weather, And messed together for years: Now one of them's wed, and the other's dead So long that he's hardly missed Save by us, who messed with him years ago: But we're all in the old School List.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Football #School #Years
Republic of the West, Enlightened, free, sublime, Unquestionably best Production of our time.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Sublime #Republic #West
In short, if your body or mind Or your soul or your purse come to grief, You need only get drunk, and you'll find Complete and immediate relief.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Grief #Drunk #Soul
The time comes when our hearts sink utterly; When we remember Deirdre and her tale, And that her lips are dust.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Heart #Dust #Sorrow
I saw God! Do you doubt it? Do you dare to doubt it? I saw the Almighty Man! His hand Was resting on a mountain!
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#God #Men #Hands
Speech and prose are not the same thing. They have different wave-lengths, for speech moves at the speed of light, where prose moves at the speed of the alphabet, and must be consecutive and grammatical and word-perfect. Prose cannot gesticulate. Speech can sometimes do nothing more.
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Moving #Light #Perfect
straightway like a bell Came low and clear The slow, sad murmur of the distant seas
-- James Kenneth Stephen

#Sea #Bells #Lows

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