Skip to content

Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells
And sights, before the dark of reason grows.

— John Betjeman Summoned By Bells (1960)

Another quote →

Topics

Children

More quotes by John Betjeman

History must not be written with bias, and both sides must be given, even if there is only one side.

Stony seaboard, far and foreign,
Stony hills poured over space,
Stony outcrop of the Burren,
Stones in every fertile place.

New Bats in Old Belfries (1945)

Hymn tunes are the nearest we've got to English folk music.

Come, friendly bombs, and fall on Slough!
It isn't fit for humans now,
There isn't grass to graze a cow.
Swarm over, Death!

Continual Dew (1937)

Safe were those evenings of the pre-war world
When firelight shone on green linoleum,
I heard the church bells hollowing out the sky,
Deep beyond deep, like never-ending stars.

Summoned by Bells (1960)

All John Betjeman quotes →

You may also like

Some of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This pleases me.

L. Frank Baum Introduction to The Lost Princess of Oz (1917)

So what if a kid dies? God will take care of him.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man.

Rabindranath Tagore Stray Birds (1916)

Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults.

Thomas Szasz The Second Sin (1973)

Attribution

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