Sir John Betjeman

Famous quotes containing the words sir john, john and/or betjeman:

    Here lies the body of Sir John Guise.
    Nobody laughs, and nobody cries;
    Where his soul is and how it fares
    Nobody knows and nobody cares.
    —Anonymous. From Frobisher’s New Select Collection of Epitaphs (c. 1791)

    “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days. Bribery and corruption are common. Children no longer obey their parents. . . . The end of the world is evidently approaching.” Sound familiar? It is, in fact, the lament of a scribe in one of the earliest inscriptions to be unearthed in Mesopotamia, where Western civilization was born.
    —C. John Sommerville (20th century)

    Down came the hairy talons
    and horrible poison blade
    And none of the garden noticed
    that fizzing, hopeless fight.
    —Sir John Betjeman (1906–1984)