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And how am I to face the odds
Of man’s bedevilment and God’s?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.

— A. E. Housman Last Poems (1922)

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More quotes by A. E. Housman

Three minutes' thought would suffice to find this out; but thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time.

My heart always warms to people who do not come to see me, especially Americans, to whom it seems to be more of an effort.

The house of delusions is cheap to build, but draughty to live in, and ready at any instant to fall.

His folly has not fellow
Beneath the blue of day
That gives to man or woman
His heart and soul away.

A Shropshire Lad (1896)

Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out. [...] and perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

The Name and Nature of Poetry (1933)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: A. E. Housman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.