Robinson Jeffers

John Robinson Jeffers (January 10 1887–January 20 1962) was an American poet who, after extensive travel in his youth, spent most of his life in Carmel, California, USA in a granite house he built for his family with his own hands ("Tor House"), which included a large stone tower ("Hawk Tower").

Quotations

• "There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew that cultures decay, and life's end is death" (The Purse-Seine, 1937)
• "Long live freedom and damn the ideologies" (The Stars Go over the Lonely Ocean 1940)
• "Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains" (Shine, Perishing Republic, 1941)
• "I'd sooner, except the penalties, kill a man than a hawk" (Hurt Hawks, 1926)