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Accept these images for what they are —
Out of the past a fragile element
Of substance into accident.
I would speak honestly and of a full heart;
I would speak surely for the tale is short,
And the soul's remorseless catalogue
Assumes its quick and piteous sum.

— Robert Penn Warren

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More quotes by Robert Penn Warren

Here is the shadow of truth, for only the shadow is true.

More and more Emerson recedes grandly into history, as the future he predicted becomes a past.

There are a lot of people who would make better citizens if they were content to be just negatively relevant.

I've been to a lot of places and done a lot of things, but writing was always first. It's a kind of pain I can't do without.

Everything seems an echo of something else.

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Attribution

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