But that so many scholars are barbarians does not much matter so long as a few of them are ready to help with their specialized knowledge the few independent thinkers, that is to say the poets, who try to to keep civilization alive.

I made no more protests. What was the use of struggling against fate

To recommend a monarchy on account of the prosperity it gives the provinces seems to me like recommending that a man should have liberty to treat his children as slaves, if at the same time he treats his slaves with reasonable consideration.

I was last in Rome in AD 540 when it was full of Goths and their heavy horses. It has changed a great deal since then.

For words of rapture groping, they"Never such love," swore "ever before was!"

But give thanks, at least, that you still have Frost's poems; and when you feel the need of solitude, retreat to the companionship of moon, water, hills and trees. Retreat, he reminds us, should not be confused with escape. And take these poems along for good luck!

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.