A Quote by Archibald MacLeish

Poets... are literal-minded men who will squeeze a word till it hurts.

Archibald MacLeish

Quote Topics

Hurts It Hurts Literal Men Minded Poets Squeeze Till Will Word

Quote Author

Archibald MacLeish
American - Poet
May 7, 1892 - April 20, 1982

The word of God tends to make large-minded noble-minded men.

Henry Ward Beecher

Nearly all men and women are poetical, to some extent, but very few can be called poets. There are great poets, small poets, and men and women who make verses. But all are not poets, nor even good versifiers. Poetasters are plentiful, but real poets are rare. Education can not make a poet, though it may polish and develop one.

Orson F. Whitney

The settle, followed by 10 for power will give you that grasp on their nuts that you need. Once you've got that, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and squeeze and don't ever let up! You'll just be breaking 1500 meters down when you hear them yelp. Listen for the yelp, and then bring it into the dock.

Christopher Allsopp

Whenever you find a preacher who takes the Bible allegorically and figuratively...that preacher is preaching an allegorical gospel which is no gospel. I thank God for a literal Christ, for a literal salvation. There is literal sorrow, literal death, literal Hell, and, thank God, there is a literal Heaven.

J. Frank Norris

In the world of poetry there are would-be poets, workshop poets, promising poets, lovesick poets, university poets, and a few real poets.

James Broughton

Any jerk can have short-term earnings. You squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, and the company sinks five years later.

Jack Welch

Heaven is not as narrowly literal-minded as hell.

Poul Anderson

Literally' - I'm not having it; people can't go around saying 'literally.' Otherwise, what's literal? There's not another word for literally: if it isn't figurative or metaphorical, what is it? It's literal: there's no substitute.

John Cooper Clarke

Love, which is lust, is the Lamp in the Tomb. Love, which is lust, is the Call from the Gloom. Love, which is lust, is the Main of Desire. Love, which is lust, is the Centric Fire. So man and woman will keep their trust, Till the very Springs of the Sea run dust. Yea, each with the other will lose and win, Till the very Sides of the Grave fall in. For the strife of Love's the abysmal strife, And the word of Love is the Word of Life. And they that go with the Word unsaid, Though they seem of the living, are damned and dead.

William Ernest Henley

The folkish-minded man, in particular, has the sacred duty, each in his own denomination, of making people stop just talking superficially of God's will, and actually fulfill God's will, and not let God's word be desecrated. For God's will gave men their form, their essence and their abilities. Anyone who destroys His work is declaring war on the Lord's creation, the divine will.

Adolf Hitler

There is a great stir about colored men getting their rights, but not a word about the colored women; and if colored men get their rights, and not colored women theirs, you see the colored men will be masters over the women, and it will be just as bad as it was before. So I am for keeping the thing going while things are stirring; because if we wait till it is still, it will take a great while to get it going again.

Sojourner Truth

Feminism is the result of a few ignorant and literal-minded women letting the cat out of the bag about which is the superior sex. Once women made it public that they could do things better than men, they were, of course, forced to do them.

P. J. O'Rourke

For poets (bear the word) Half-poets even, are still whole democrats.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Some of us – poets are not exactly poets. We live sometimes – beyond the word.

Wole Soyinka

No one has ever asked an actor, 'You're playing a strong-minded man.' We assume that men are strong-minded, or have opinions. But a strong-minded woman is a different animal.