Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.
It is only a man's own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them....
A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence but sets off...
Philip Larkin has a tough honesty and sense of humor that I find irresistible as a contemporary poet.
