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Daylong this tomcat lies stretched flat
As an old rough mat, no mouth and no eyes,
Continual wars and wives are what
Have tattered his ears and battered his head.

— Ted Hughes Esther's Tomcat (1960)

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Pets

More quotes by Ted Hughes

We now give more serious weight to the words of a country's poets than to the words of its politicians — though we know the latter may interfere more drastically with our lives.

Poetry International Programme note (1967)

However rootedly national it may be, poetry is less and less the prisoner of its own language.

Poetry International Programme note (1967)

The idea of global unity is not new, but the absolute necessity of it has only just arrived, like a sudden radical alteration of the sun, and we shall have to adapt or disappear.

Poetry International Programme note (1967)

The jaws' hooked clamp and fangs
Not to be changed at this date;
A life subdued to its instrument.

Lupercal (1960)

The deeps are cold:
In that darkness camaraderie does not hold:
Nothing touches but, clutching, devours.

Lupercal (1960)

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All breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away.

Mahavira

A dog cannot relate his autobiography; however eloquently he may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were honest but poor.

Bertrand Russell Human Knowledge: Its Scope and Limits (1948)

Histories are more full of Examples of the Fidelity of dogs than of Friends.

Alexander Pope

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.

Milan Kundera The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984)

Attribution

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