Quotes by Allen Tate

Allen Tate

A poem may be an instance of morality, of social conditions, of psychological history; it may instance all its qualities, but never one of them alone, nor any two or three; never less than all.

Quality

Three

Two

According to its doctors, my one intransigent desire is to have been a Confederate general, and because I could not or would not become anything else, I set up for poet and beg an to invent fictions about the personal ambitions that my society has no use for.

Ambition

Desire

Doctors

Ah, Christ, I love you rings to the wild sky And I must think a little of the past: When I was ten I told a stinking lie That got a black boy whipped.

Christmas

Love You

Lying

All the sea-gods are dead. You, Venus, come home To your salt maidenhead.

Home

Sea

Venus

Among friends one has the privilege of saying nothing; the civility consists in the assumption that one’s silence will be civilly understood. I can imagine a small gathering of friends who say nothing all evening: they recoil from saying anything that the others don’t want to hear; and their silence would be the subtlest courtesy.

Friendship

Gathering

Silence

At twelve I was determined to shoot only For honor; at twenty not to shoot at all; I know at thirty-three that one must shoot As often as one gets the rare chance – In killing there is more than commentary.

Honor

Twelve

Twenties

But in our age the appeal to authority is weak, and I am of my age.

Age

Glitter

Weak

But we shall not know the world by looking at it; we know it by looking at the hovering fly.

Hovering

Knows

World

Culture is the study of perfection, and the constant effort to achieve it.

Culture

Effort

Perfection

Dramatic experience is not logical; it may be subdued to the kind of coherence that we indicate when we speak, in criticism, of form.

Criticism

Experience

May

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Actors

Age

Ambition

Argument

Art

Believe

Calm

Change

Christmas

Church

Conflict

Connections

Criticism

Critics

Cry

Culture

Dark

Darkness

Deals

Desire

Doctors

Doe

Drama

Dream

Effort

Encouragement

Experience

Eye

Faces

Feet

Fighting

Fire

Flames

Friendship

Fundamentals

Gathering

Glasses

Glitter

Hair

Ham

Hands

Heart

Historical

Home

Honor

Hovering

Interesting

Keys

Knows

Lasts

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

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The Autobiography

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The Behaviour Diary

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The Relationship Therapist

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Quotes by Allen Tate

Allen Tate

A poem may be an instance of morality, of social conditions, of psychological history; it may instance all its qualities, but never one of them alone, nor any two or three; never less than all.

According to its doctors, my one intransigent desire is to have been a Confederate general, and because I could not or would not become anything else, I set up for poet and beg an to invent fictions about the personal ambitions that my society has no use for.

Ah, Christ, I love you rings to the wild sky And I must think a little of the past: When I was ten I told a stinking lie That got a black boy whipped.

All the sea-gods are dead. You, Venus, come home To your salt maidenhead.

At twelve I was determined to shoot only For honor; at twenty not to shoot at all; I know at thirty-three that one must shoot As often as one gets the rare chance – In killing there is more than commentary.

But in our age the appeal to authority is weak, and I am of my age.

But we shall not know the world by looking at it; we know it by looking at the hovering fly.

Culture is the study of perfection, and the constant effort to achieve it.

Dramatic experience is not logical; it may be subdued to the kind of coherence that we indicate when we speak, in criticism, of form.

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