"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

Poet, Poets

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"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."

Exlpore more Poet quotes

"Yes, you can feel very alone as a poet and you sometimes think, is it worth it? Is it worth carrying on? But because there were other poets, you became part of a scene. Even though they were very different writers, it made it easier because you were together."

Roger McGough, British Poet

Poet, Poets, Worth, Writers

"Let the poets cry themselves to sleep, and all their tearful words will turn back into steam."

Conor Oberst, American Musician

Poet, Poets, Sleep, Will, Words

"There are very few great poets in the world."

Tahar Ben Jelloun, French Poet

Poet, Poets, World

"I'm passing on a tradition of which I am part. There's a long line of poets who went before me, and I'm another one, and I'm hoping to pass that on to other younger, or newer, poets than myself."

Diane Wakoski, American Poet

Poet, Poets, Tradition

"A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses."

Jean Cocteau, French Director

Poet, Roses

"When critics are waiting to pounce upon poetic style on exactly the same grounds as if it were prose, the poets tremble."

John C. Ransom, American Poet

Poet, Poets, Prose, Style, Waiting

"It's difficult to get films made, especially films about poets."

Dougray Scott, Scottish Actor

Poet, Poets

"Poets that lasting marble seek Must come in Latin or in Greek."

Edmund Waller, English Poet

Poet, Poets

"Poets wish to profit or to please."

Horace, Roman Poet

Poet, Poets, Profit

"The most important thing for poets to do is to write as little as possible."

T. S. Eliot, American Poet

Poet, Poets

Explore more quotes by Gilbert K. Chesterton

"An artist is identical with an anarchist,' he cried. 'You might transpose the words anywhere. An anarchist is an artist. The man who throws a bomb is an artist, because he prefers a great moment to everything. He sees how much more valuable is one burst of blazing light, one peal of perfect thunder, than the mere common bodies of a few shapeless policemen. An artist disregards all governments, abolishes all conventions. The poet delights in disorder only. If it were not so, the most poetical thing in the world would be the Underground Railway.''So it is,' said Mr. Syme.'Nonsense!' said Gregory, who was very rational when any one else attempted paradox."

Art

"Modern tragic writers have to write short stories; if they wrote long stories - cheerfulness would creep in. Such stories are like stings; brief, but purely painful."

Tragedy

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about."

Tradition

"The word 'heresy' not only means no longer being wrong; it practically means being clear-headed and courageous. The word 'orthodoxy' not only no longer means being right; it practically means being wrong. All this can mean one thing, and one thing only. It means that people care less for whether they are philosophically right. For obviously a man ought to confess himself crazy before he confesses himself heretical."

Philosophy

"The only defensible war is a war of defense."

War

"The whole order of things is as outrageous as any miracle which could presume to violate it."

Structure

"Nothing is poetical if plain daylight is not poetical; and no monster should amaze us if the normal man does not amaze."

Man

"Evil always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes, and there has in all ages been a disastrous alliance between abnormal innocence and abnormal sin."

Morality

"There are some people who state that the exterior, sex, or physique of another person is indifferent to them, that they care only for the communion of mind with mind; but these people need not detain us. There are some statements that no one ever thinks of believing, however often they are made."

Philosophy

"Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination."

Creativity