“You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.”

“Live the life you love. Love the life you live.”

“Live the life you love. Love the life you live.” – Bob Marley

“And don’t expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she’s not there.”

“Conquer the devils with a little thing called love.”

“He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don’t analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you.”

“I know that I’m not perfect and that I don’t claim to be, so before you point your fingers make sure your hands are clean.” —Could You Be Loved, from the album Uprising (1980).

“If puss and dog can get together, why can’t we love one another?”

“If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy. If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing. If she’s worth it, you won’t give up. If you give up, you’re not worthy. … Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.

“If you get down and quarrel everyday, you’re saying prayers to the devil, I say.”

“Love would never leave us alone.”

“One love, one heart, Let’s get together and feel alright.” —One Love (cowritten with Curtis Mayfield), from the album Exodus, originally recorded on The Wailing Wailers (1965).

“Overcome the devils with a thing called love.”

“She may not be the most popular or prettiest but if you love her and she makes you smile… what else matters?”

“The biggest coward of a man is to awaken the love of a woman without the intention of loving her.”

“The trust is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”

“The winds that sometimes take something we love, are the same that bring us something we learn to love.” “Therefore we should not cry about something that was taken from us, but, yes, love what we have been given. Because what is really ours is never gone forever.”

“There will never be no love at all.”

“You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun, but you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your windows. So that’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.”

“One love, one heart, one destiny.”

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.”

“In the abundance of water a fool is thirsty.”

“Judge not, before you judge yourself.”

“Alcohol make you drunk, man. It don’t make you meditate, it just make you drunk. Herb is more a consciousness.” —As recorded in filmed interview (1979) with Dylan Taite in Aotearoa, New Zealand

“Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.”

“Keep calm and chive on.” —As quoted in a 1974 interview with Lester Bangs

A good meal can somewhat repair / The eatings of slight love

They both rise / Make for the Coke dispenser. 'What's he like? / Christ, I just told you.

I suppose if one lives to be old, one's entire waking life will be spent turning on the spit of recollection over the fires of mingled shame, pain or remorse. Cheerful prospect!

Poetry is an affair of sanity, of seeing things as they are.

And I am sick for want of sleep; So sick, that I can half-believe The soundless river pouring from the cave Is neither strong nor deep; Only an image fancied in conceit.

Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.

It will be worth it, if in the end I manage To blank out whatever it is that is doing the damage. Then there will be nothing I know. My mind will fold into itself, like fields, like snow.

He [Llewelyn Powys] has always in mind the great touchstone Death & consequently life is always judged as how far it fits us, or compensates us, for ultimately dying.

Mother's electric blanket broke, & I have 'mended' it, so she may be practising suttee involuntarily before long.

Living toys are something novel, But it soon wears off somehow.

Ought we to smile / Perhaps make friends? No: in the race for seats / You're best alone. Friendship is not worth while.

Only one ship is seeking us, a black- Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back A huge and birdless silence. In her wake No waters breed or break.

Earth never grieves, I thought, walking across the park, watching seagulls cruising greedily above the ground looking for heaven knows what. Don't you think it's a good line? A very good line

I had a moral tutor, but never saw him (the only words of his I remember are 'The three pleasures of life -drinking, smoking, and masturbation')

I think that at the bottom of all art lies the impulse to preserve.

I came to the conclusion that an enormous amount of research was needed to form an opinion on anything, and therefore abandoned politics altogether as a topic of conversation.

Why can't one stop being a son without becoming a father?

I would not dare Console you if I could. What can be said, Except that suffering is exact, but where Desire takes charge, readings will grow erratic?

Life is first boredom, then fear. whether or not we use it, it goes, and leaves what something hidden from us chose, and age, and then the only end of age.

Time is the echo of an axe Within a wood.

In life, as in art, talking vitiates doing.

The first day after a death, the new absence Is always the same; we should be careful Of each other, we should be kind While there is still time. From The Mower

If I looked into your face / expecting a word or a laugh on the old conditions, / it would not be a friend who met my eye

It never worked for me. Something to do with violence A long way back, and wrong rewards, And arrogant eternity.