John Ashbery Quotes

Thought I to myself, we shall never come off scot-free.

Those who'll play with cats must expect to be scratched.

If we didn't do the tour, it would have been disastrous.

Time and events bring out the truth, but they also deal a mortal blow.

Events are as much the parents of the future as they were the children of the past.

… the pain we have suffered would have been for naught—and we would only be putting off until some later time an even more painful day of reckoning.

The hole I've dug for myself is very big.

Life will let you get away with something for a while, but sooner or later, you will pay the price. Everything you do in life causes the effects that you experience. When you get the bill, be prepared to pay.

Good God, man, what is that smell?" He eyed with disgust the doctor's filthy cloak. "Life," answered the doctor.

My love, do you recall the object which we saw, That fair, sweet, summer morn! At a turn in the path a foul carcass On a gravel strewn bed, Its legs raised in the air, like a lustful woman, Burning and dripping with poisons, Displayed in a shameless, nonchalant way Its belly, swollen with gases.

Hee that goes barefoot, must not plant thornes.

You can't expect a man in a dung heap to smell sweet.

The hero sees that the event is ancillary: it must follow him.

Neglect starts out as an infection then becomes a disease.

Motivation is like taking a bath; If you stop doing it, you begin to stink!

Death is the black hole of biology. It's an event horizon, and once you go over that event horizon, no information can be passed back out of the hole.

Nearly all our ills are the result of neglect in some way or other. And this truth may be said to apply to the ills of nations as well. Negligence is at the bottom of all decay. And decay always starts by showing little signs-or warnings. Then is the time to show interest and to be alert. There is nothing quite so easy as to neglect, and nothing quite so difficult as to repair that negligence. Negligence always carries a high price. It costs nothing to avoid it!

It will be interesting to see what the long term fruits of our national apathy will be, 'cos so far they've been pretty foul.

Pryde will have a fall;For pryde goeth before and shame commeth after.

Might have gone further and have fared worse.

To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal.

Every time I've built character, I've regretted it.

The demon got up. The demon said Fool. To think you can eat their food and not talk to them. To think you can take their money and not be afraid of them. To think you can depend on their company and not suffer from them.

You cannot expect to get the effect when you neglect to create the cause.

Once we have accepted the story we cannot escape the story's fate.