William Edgar Stafford

“The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.”

“Children of heroes have glory for breakfast.”

“Save the world by torturing one innocent child? Which innocent child?”

“If you don't know the kind of person I amand I don't know the kind of person you area pattern that others made may prevail in the worldand following the wrong god home we may miss our star.”

“Between roars the lion purrs.”

“Keep a journal, and don't assume that your work has to accomplish anything worthy: artists and peace-workers are in it for the long haul, and not to be judged by immediate results.”

“Politicians need citizens who will permit them to behave reasonably.”

“Protest poetry -- could there be consensus poetry?”

“Some people are blinded by their experience. Soldiers know how important war is. Owners of slaves learn every day how inferior subject peoples are.”

“If it should happen you wake up and Armageddon has come, lie still.”

“Those times you caught them out and showed them up -- they learned how stupid they are. But now you'll never hear the little song of their purring throats, and you'll never know what they think, when you say hello.”

“A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.”

“Can injustice one way be corrected without the interim reaction that tries to impose injustice the other way?”

“Those who champion democracy, but make a fetish of never accepting anything they don't agree with -- what advantage do they see in democracy?”