Robinson Jeffers Quotes

This wild swan of a world is no hunter’s game. Better bullets than yours would miss the white breast, Better mirrors than yours would crack in the flame.

I’d sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk.

The wild God of the world is sometimes merciful to those That ask mercy, not often to the arrogant. You do not know him, you communal people, or you have forgotten him; Intemperate and savage, the hawk remembers him; Beautiful and wild, the hawks, and men that are dying, remember him.

The wing trails like a banner in defeat, No more to use the sky forever but live with famine And pain a few days.

The poet as well Builds his monument mockingly; For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun Die blind, his heart blackening: Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained thoughts found The honey peace in old poems.

And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, insufferable master.