Quotes by John Masefield

• Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise. But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it.
• The luck will alter and the star will rise.
• I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky; and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.
• Poetry is a mixture of common sense, which not all have, with an uncommon sense, which very few have.
• It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.
• It is too maddening. I've got to fly off, right now, to some devilish navy yard, three hours in a seasick steamer, and after being heartily sick, I'll have to speak three times, and then I'll be sick coming home. Still, who would not be sick for England?
• In this life he laughs longest who laughs last.
• Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain.
• Commonplace people dislike tragedy because they dare not suffer and cannot exult.
• Since the printing press came into being, poetry has ceased to be the delight of the whole community of man; it has become the amusement and delight of the few.