“People are too prone to torment themselves with devising far-fetched…” — A.E.Housman | V2Melody

“People are too prone to torment themselves with devising far-fetched reasons.”

Preferring straightforward explanations to elaborate intellectual justifications · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892

About A.E.Housman

A.E.Housman

26 March 1859–30 April 1936

Alfred Edward Housman was born on 26 March 1859 at Valley House, Fockbury, a small hamlet near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, England, and died in Cambridge on 30 April 1936. He became, by way of an unusually divided life, both one of the most recognizable lyric poets in English and one of the most formidable classical…

More by A.E.Housman

Poems by A.E.Housman

More remarks by A.E.Housman

“While the partisans of Science define the end of education as the useful, the partisans of the Humanities define it, more sublimely, as the good and the beautiful.”

Contrasting utilitarian and humanistic ideals of education · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892

“If a dog hunted for fleas on mathematical principles, basing his researches on statistics of area and population, he would never catch a flea except by accident.”

Mocking rigid method when observation and judgement are what a problem requires · Lecture, The Application of Thought to Textual Criticism, 1921

“The acquisition of knowledge needs no such justification: its true sanction is a much simpler affair, and inherent in itself.”

Defending learning as valuable independently of practical usefulness · Introductory Lecture, University College London, 1892