My Small Boat

Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie,
A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.
Ask me a riddle and I reply,
Cottleston, cottleston, cottleston pie.

History is the record of an encounter between character and circumstances.

If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.

The wise man has long ears, big eyes and a short tongue.

Love
The difficult part of love
Is being selfish enough,
Is having the blind persistence
To upset an existence
Just for your own sake.
What cheek it must take.
And then the unselfish side—
How can you be satisfied,
Putting someone else first
So that you come off worst?
My life is for me.
As well ignore gravity.
Still, vicious or virtuous,
Love suits most of us.
Only the bleeder […]

Take this for a general rule: every decision that is established so strongly that it may not be changed under any possible circumstance, that decision, I say, is wicked.

The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where only one grew before.

Arrows Of Light
Arrows of light, come
Pierce my soul
Pierce my soul
Breath of the bright wind
Make us one
Make us one
Life is singing
Like a great bell ringing

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.

We must believe in free will — we have no choice.

The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail — its roof may shake — the wind may blow through it — the storm may enter — the rain may enter — but the King of England cannot enter — all his force dares […]

Answers
I keep my answers small and keep them near;
Big questions bruised my mind but still I let
Small answers be a bulwark to my fear.
The huge abstractions I keep from the light;
Small things I handled and caressed and loved.
I let the stars assume the whole of night.
But the big answers clamoured to be moved
Into my life. […]