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W.N.P. Barbellion

W.N.P. Barbellion Quotes

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AllIfsMindAliveBookExistenceFactsIncrediblesThinkingAmazementAwakeBreatheCuttingFeetFellowsHandsI CanImpossibleInfantLibraryLying

Famous W.N.P. Barbellion Quotes

“The porter spends his days in the Library keeping strict vigil over this catacomb of books, passing along between the shelves and yet never paying heed to the almost audible susurrus of desire- the desire every book has to be taken down and read, to live, to come into being in somebody's mind. He even hands the volumes over the counter, seeks them out in their proper places or returns them there without once realising that a Book is a Person and not a Thing.”

MindPersonsBookHandsDesireTakenReturnDown AndLibraryPassingPassingsRealisingVolumeStrictShelvesHeed
Book:The Journal of a Disappointed Man
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“An appetite for knowledge is apt to rush one off one's feet, like any other appetite if not curbed. I often stand in the in the centre of the Library here and think despairingly how impossible it is ever to become possessed of all the wealth of facts and ideas contained in the books surrounding me on every hand.”

IfsThinkingBookIdeasFactsHandsWealthImpossibleFeetLibraryAppetitePossessedCentre
Book:The Journal of a Disappointed Man: & A Last Diary
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“I waste much time gaping and wondering. During a walk or in a book or in the middle of an embrace, suddenly I awake to a stark amazement at everything. The bare fact of existence paralyses me- holds my mind in mortmain. To be alive is so incredible that all I do is to lie still and merely breathe- like an infant on its back in a cot. It is impossible to be interested in anything in particular while overhead the sun shines or underneath my feet grows a single blade of grass.”

MindStillsBookFactsLyingGrowsWalksExistenceWonderSunAliveImpossibleFeetMiddleParticularWasteEmbraceShiningIncrediblesBreatheGrassAwakeInfantBladesStarksAmazementOverheadParalysisSun ShinesBlades Of Grass
Book:The Journal of a Disappointed Man
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