Edmund Vance Cooke Quotes & Sayings

You don't buy poetry. (Neither do I.)
Why?
You cannot afford it? Bosh! You spend
Editions de luxe on a thirsty friend.
You can buy any one of the poetry bunch
For the price you pay for a business lunch.
Don't you suppose that a hungry head,
Like an empty stomach, ought to be fed?
Looking into myself, I find this true, So I hardly can figure it false in you. — Edmund Vance Cooke

Perhaps the reward of the spirit who tries Is not the goal but the exercise. — Edmund Vance Cooke

I have seen men march to the wars, and then I have watched their homeward tread, and they brought back bodies of living men, But their eyes were cold and dead. — Edmund Vance Cooke

Kisses kept are wasted; Love is to be tasted. There are some you love, I know; Be not loathe to tell them so. Lips go dry and eyes grow wet Waiting to be warmly met. Keep them not in waiting yet; Kisses kept are wasted. — Edmund Vance Cooke

Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it.
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?

(Excerpt from "How Did You Die?") — Edmund Vance Cooke

Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce Or a trouble is what you make it, And it isn't the fact that you're hurt that counts, But only how did you take it. — Edmund Vance Cooke

You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that? Come up with a smiling face, It's nothing against you to fall down flat But to lie there - that's a disgrace. — Edmund Vance Cooke

Don't fight with the pillow, but lay down your head And kick every worriment out of the bed. — Edmund Vance Cooke

So you tell yourself you are pretty find clay To have tricked temptation and turned it away, But wait, my friend, for a different day; Wait till you want to want to! — Edmund Vance Cooke