My age fallen away like white ...

My age fallen away like white swaddling
Floats in the middle distance, becomes
An inhabited cloud.

One of the sadder things, I th...

One of the sadder things, I think,
Is how our birthdays slowly sink:
Presents and parties disappear,
The cards grow fewer year by year,
Till, when one reaches sixty-five,
How many care we're still alive?

Life is first boredom, then fe...

Life is first boredom, then fear.
Whether or not we use it, it goes,
And leaves what something hidden from us chose,
And age, and then the only end of age.

I have started to say
'A...

I have started to say
'A quarter of a century'
Or 'thirty years back'
About my own life.

Courage is no good:
It me...

Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Give me a thrill, says the rea...

Give me a thrill, says the reader,
Give me a kick;
I don't care how you succeed, or
What subject you pick.

It's easy to write when you've...

It's easy to write when you've nothing to write about
(That is, when you are young)....

Boys dream of native girls who...

Boys dream of native girls who bring breadfruit,
Whatever they are....

Walk with the dead
For fe...

Walk with the dead
For fear of death.

The difficult part of love

The difficult part of love
Is being selfish enough....

Philip Larkin 03.03.2018 03:03:03 148 quotes

Still, vicious or virtuous,

Still, vicious or virtuous,
Love suits most of us.

Philip Larkin 03.03.2018 03:03:03 148 quotes

I wonder love can have already...

I wonder love can have already set
In dreams, when we've not met
More times than I can number on one hand.

Selflessness is like waiting i...

Selflessness is like waiting in a hospital
In a badly-fitting suit on a cold wet morning.
Selfishness is like listening to good jazz
With drinks for further orders and a huge fire.

To put one brick upon another,...

To put one brick upon another,
Add a third, and then a fourth,
Leaves no time to wonder whether
What you do has any worth.

Many famous feet have trod

Many famous feet have trod
Sublunary paths, and famous hands have weighed
The strength they have against the strength they need;
And famous lips interrogated God
Concerning franchise in eternity....

Philip Larkin 03.03.2018 03:03:03 148 quotes

Spring, of all seasons most gr...

Spring, of all seasons most gratuitous,
Is fold of untaught flower, is race of water,
Is earth's most multiple, excited daughter;
And those she has least use for see her best,
Their paths grown craven and circuitous,
Their visions mountain-clear, their needs immodest.

Clearly money has something to...

Clearly money has something to do with life....

... everyone young going down ...

... everyone young going down the long slide
To happiness, endlessly.

No one can tear your thread ou...

No one can tear your thread out of himself.
No one can tie you down or set you free.

Things are tougher than we are...

Things are tougher than we are, just
As earth will always respond
However we mess it about....