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Top 15 William Empson Quotes (2025 Update)

William Empson Quote: “Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can’t be solved by analysis.”

1. “Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can’t be solved by analysis.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Shall I make it clear, boys, for all to apprehend, Those that will not hear, boys, waiting for the end, Knowing it is near, boys, trying to pretend, Sitting in cold fear, boys, waiting for the end?”

2. “Shall I make it clear, boys, for all to apprehend, Those that will not hear, boys, waiting for the end, Knowing it is near, boys, trying to pretend, Sitting in cold fear, boys, waiting for the end?”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “All languages are composed of dead metaphors as the soil of corpses, but English is perhaps uniquely full of metaphors of this sort, which are not dead but sleeping, and, while making a direct statement, colour it with an implied comparison.”

3. “All languages are composed of dead metaphors as the soil of corpses, but English is perhaps uniquely full of metaphors of this sort, which are not dead but sleeping, and, while making a direct statement, colour it with an implied comparison.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “All those large dreams by which men long live well Are magic-lanterned on the smoke of hell.”

4. “All those large dreams by which men long live well Are magic-lanterned on the smoke of hell.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry.”

5. “The machinations of ambiguity are among the very roots of poetry.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.”

6. “Law makes long spokes of the short stakes of men.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Twixt devil and deep sea, man hacks his caves; Birth, death; one, many; what is true, and seems; Earth’s vast hot iron, cold space’s empty waves.”

7. “Twixt devil and deep sea, man hacks his caves; Birth, death; one, many; what is true, and seems; Earth’s vast hot iron, cold space’s empty waves.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “The central function of imaginative literature is to make you realize that other people act on moral convictions different from your own.”

8. “The central function of imaginative literature is to make you realize that other people act on moral convictions different from your own.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “This world is good enough for me, if only I can be good enough for it.”

9. “This world is good enough for me, if only I can be good enough for it.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort nor the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.”

10. “Slowly the poison the whole blood stream fills. It is not the effort nor the failure tires. The waste remains, the waste remains and kills.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Poetry contains nothing haphazard.”

11. “Poetry contains nothing haphazard.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Proust has listed a great many reasons why it is impossible to be happy, but, in the course of being happy, one finds it difficult to remember them.”

12. “Proust has listed a great many reasons why it is impossible to be happy, but, in the course of being happy, one finds it difficult to remember them.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “The difficult part of good temper consists in forbearance, and accommodation to the ill-humors of others.”

13. “The difficult part of good temper consists in forbearance, and accommodation to the ill-humors of others.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “To produce pure proletarian art the artist must be at one with the worker; this is impossible, not for political reasons, but because the artist never is at one with any public.”

14. “To produce pure proletarian art the artist must be at one with the worker; this is impossible, not for political reasons, but because the artist never is at one with any public.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “The heart of standing is that you cannot fly.”

15. “The heart of standing is that you cannot fly.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Poets, on the face of it, have either got to be easier or to write their own notes; readers have either got to take more trouble over reading or cease to regard notes as pretentious and a sign of bad poetry.”

16. “Poets, on the face of it, have either got to be easier or to write their own notes; readers have either got to take more trouble over reading or cease to regard notes as pretentious and a sign of bad poetry.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “It seems unpleasantly refined to put things off till someone knows.”

17. “It seems unpleasantly refined to put things off till someone knows.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Liberal hopefulness Regards death as a mere border to an improving picture.”

18. “Liberal hopefulness Regards death as a mere border to an improving picture.”

— William Empson

William Empson Quote: “Buddhists and Christians contrive to agree about death Making death their ideal basis for different ideals. The Communists however disapprove of death Except when practical.”

19. “Buddhists and Christians contrive to agree about death Making death their ideal basis for different ideals. The Communists however disapprove of death Except when practical.”

— William Empson

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