The task of man is not to discover new worlds, but to discover his own world in terms of human comprehension and beauty. Archibald MacLeish More Quotes by Archibald MacLeish More Quotes From Archibald MacLeish Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no center because every point, or none, is center - an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman's earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice, not in theory. Archibald MacLeish space practice men To see the earth as we now see it, small and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the unending night ~ brothers who see now they are truly brothers. Archibald MacLeish nature brother beautiful What is more important in a library than anything else-than everything else-is the fact that it exists. Archibald MacLeish thought-provoking reading book The business of the law is to make sense of the confusion of what we call human life - to reduce it to order but at the same time to give it possibility, scope, even dignity. Archibald MacLeish law giving order Conventional wisdom notwithstanding, there is no reason either in football or in poetry why the two should not meet in a man's life if he has the weight and cares about the words. Archibald MacLeish wisdom football sports What you really have to know is one: yourself. And the only way you can know that one is in the mirror of the others. And the only way you can see into the mirror of the others is by love or its opposite—by profound emotion. Certainly not by curiosity—by dancing around asking, looking, making notes. You have to live relationships to know. Archibald MacLeish dancing mirrors opposites Races didn't bother the Americans. They were something a lot better than any race. They were a People. They were the first self-constituted, self-declared, self-created People in the history of the world. Archibald MacLeish race self people Writers . . . write to give reality to experience. Archibald MacLeish writing giving reality The perversion of the mind is only possible when those who should be heard in its defence are silent. Archibald MacLeish silent should mind The one man who should never attempt an explanation of a poem is its author. If the poem can be improved by it's author's explanations it never should have been published, and if the poem cannot be improved by its author's explanations the explanations are scarcely worth reading. Archibald MacLeish reading should-have men Keepers of books, keepers of print and paper on the shelves, librarians are keepers also of the records of the human spiritthe records of men's watch upon the world and on themselves. Archibald MacLeish men watches book Poetry is the art of understanding what it is to be alive. Archibald MacLeish alive understanding art If the art of poetry is?the art of making sense of the chaos of human experience, it's not a bad thing to see a lot of chaos. Archibald MacLeish human-experience chaos art Young poets are advised by their elders to avoid the practice of journalism as they would wet socks and gin before breakfast. Archibald MacLeish journalism practice breakfast The roots of the grass strain, Tighten, the earth is rigid, waits-he is waiting- And suddenly, and all at once, the rain! Archibald MacLeish roots rain water The American journey has not ended. America is always still to build ... West is a country in the mind, and so eternal. Archibald MacLeish journey country america Piety's hard enough to take among the poor who have to practice it. A rich man's piety stinks. It's insufferable. Archibald MacLeish atheism practice men The map of America is a map of endlessness, of opening out, of forever and ever. No man's face would make you think of it but his hope might, his courage might. Archibald MacLeish men america thinking Our reliance in this country is on the inquiring, individual human mind. Our strength is founded there; our resilience, our ability to face an ever-changing future and to master it. We are not frozen into the backward-facing impotence of those societies, fixed in the rigidness of an official dogma, to which the future is the mirror of the past. We are free to make the future for ourselves. Archibald MacLeish mirrors country past What once was cuddled must learn to kiss The cold wonn's mouth. That's all the mystery. Archibald MacLeish kissing mouths death
