Stephen Vincent Benet

Dreaming men are haunted men.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

She stood there, and at once I knew Though Sleep and Death were whispering low.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Life was a storm to wander through. At least my feet sought out not Hell!

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I crawled. I could not speak or see The second Hell.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

There was no pain when I awoke, And ever.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Oh dear and laughing, lost to me, Beneath the ever-living Tree.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

This in my heart I keep for goad! Somewhere... in Heaven... she walks... that... road...

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Eternally the choking steam goes up From the black pools of seething oil...

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For ever... well... it droops the mouth. Till I Rest and green peace.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits, Where first two men spread wings for flight and dared the hawk afar.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Icarus, Icarus, though the end is piteous, See the first supernal glory, not the ruin hideous.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

On the highest steeps of Space he will have his dwelling-place, Mounting, mounting still, triumphant, on his torn and broken wings!

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For all those beaten, for the broken heads,The ghosts in the burning city of our time…

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For those who still said "Red Front" or "God save the Crown!"Those with the deep-socketed eyes and the lamp burning.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For those slain at once.And found and killed at the end like rats in a drain.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For those who planned and were leaders and were beaten"Died of pneumonia." "Died trying to escape."

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For those denounced by their smug, horrible childrenTo make perfect states, in the names of the perfect states.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Talking so quietly; when they hear the cars"We are all good citizens here. We believe in the Perfect State."

— Stephen Vincent Benet

We heard the shots in the nightAnd when he came back, he looked drunk, and the blood was on him.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For the women who mourn their dead in the secret night,And no man lifting a hand and no man speaking.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

For the cold of the pistol-butt and the bullet's heat,And the stuttering machine-gun that answers all.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

A man with a mouth like a mastiff, a brow like a mountain and eyes like burning anthracite — that was Dan'l Webster in his prime. And the biggest case he argued never got written down in the books, for he argued it against the devil, nip and tuck and no holds barred. And this is the way I used to hear it told.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

If two New Hampshiremen aren't a match for the devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence … but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

He knew that once you bested anybody like Mr. Scratch in fair fight, his power on you was gone. And he could see that Mr. Scratch knew it too.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

A soul. A soul is nothing. Can you see it, smell it, touch it? No.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

You will have money and all that money can buy.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so — it does not hurt them. I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings — that was hard and took a long time. My knowledge made me happy — it was like a fire in my heart. Most of all, I liked to hear of the Old Days and the stories of the gods.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

My people are the Hill People. They are the men. I travel upon the god-roads and am not afraid.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Never have I been so much alone — I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird — alone upon the great river, the servant of the gods.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I went north — I did not try to hide myself. When a god or a demon saw me, then I would die, but meanwhile I was no longer afraid. My hunger for knowledge burned in me — there was so much that I could not understand.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

When gods war with gods, they use weapons we do not know. It was fire falling out of the sky and a mist that poisoned. It was the time of the Great Burning and the Destruction. They ran about like ants in the streets of their city — poor gods, poor gods!

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I knew then that they had been men, neither gods nor demons. It is a great knowledge, hard to tell and believe. They were men — they went a dark road, but they were men.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I have been in the Place of the Gods and seen it! Now slay me, if it is the law — but still I know they were men.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

The time is — time. The place is anywhere. A child is born.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

He shall not come to conquest, He shall judge all things.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Outcasts of war, misfits, rebellious souls, And, meanwhile, we're the wheat between the stones.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I am not tired. Something is loosed that changes all the world.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

Something begins, begins; Something is loosed to change the shaken world.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

I see that I've said something you don't like, No Herods and no slaves.

— Stephen Vincent Benet

We are the earth his word must sow like wheat And yet, unless we go, his message fails.

— Stephen Vincent Benet