When I went to bed as a child, I was told, 'You don't know where you'll wake up.' When I ran in the garden, I was told that running was bad for the heart. Everything had its sinister aspect - milk shrinks the stomach, lemon thins the blood. Louis MacNeice aspectbadbed share on social
I would admit that poetry is something more than mere communication and that if that 'something more' could be abstracted from the whole, it might well prove to be that which makes the whole a poem. Louis MacNeice abstractadmitcommunication Change image and share on social
In January 1921, I found myself wonderfully alone in an empty carriage in a rocking train in the night between Waterloo and Sherborne. Stars on each side of me; I ran from side to side of the carriage, checking the constellations. Louis MacNeice carriagecheckconstellation share on social
Democracy - or any improvement on it - will rest on the layman's right to criticize. His criticism will be often - very often - damn silly, but if, like Plato and the Fascists, we take away his right to criticize, we take away his right to appreciate. Louis MacNeice criticismcriticizedamn share on social
As things may turn out in the future, people may (though I doubt it) find that their work gives them all the enjoyment - physical, intellectual or aesthetic - which they may require. That certainly is not so now. Louis MacNeice aestheticdoubtenjoyment share on social
Dublin was hardly worried by the war; her old preoccupations were still preoccupations. The intelligentsia continued their parties; their mutual malice was as effervescent as ever. Louis MacNeice continuedublineffervescent Change image and share on social
My birth was managed so rottenly that my mother had eventually to have a hysterectomy, after which she was ill off & on till she dies for obscure reasons when I was just 7. Louis MacNeice birtheventuallyhysterectomy Change image and share on social
Man is an unhappy animal and one that can talk. If he was not unhappy, he would have nothing to talk about. But if he had nothing to talk about, he would be unhappy. Louis MacNeice animalmantalk Change image and share on social
It is a retrogression when human beings begin to insist on uniform, on one-mindedness, on conditioning their offspring so that all their reactions are automatic. Louis MacNeice automaticbeginbeing Change image and share on social
All experiment is made on a basis of tradition; all tradition is the crystallization of experiment. Louis MacNeice basiscrystallizationexperiment Change image and share on social
