Quotes by Poet | Beyond Motive 34/304

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Quotes by Poet

"Badness you can get easily, in quantity; the road is smooth, and it lies close by, But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it."

"Badness you can get easily, in quantity; the road is smooth, and it lies close by, But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it."

Hesiod, Greek Poet

God, Gods, Excellence, Lies, Quantity

18

"Trust not to much to appearances."

"Trust not to much to appearances."

Virgil, Roman Poet

18

"Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things; the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours."

"Traditional matter must be glorified, since it would be easier to listen to the re-creation of familiar stories than to quite new and unexpected things; the listeners, we must remember, needed poetry chiefly as the re-creation of tired hours."

Lascelles Abercrombie, British Poet

18

"I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority."

"I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority."

Herbert Read, English Poet

Religion, Authority, Supernatural

18

"Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other."

"Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other."

Euripides, Greek Poet

18

"Misfortune was my god."

"Misfortune was my god."

Arthur Rimbaud, French Poet

God, Misfortune

18

"Everyone wishes that the man whom he fears would perish."

"Everyone wishes that the man whom he fears would perish."

Ovid, Roman Poet

18

"A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man."

"A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man."

Carl Sandburg, American Poet

Talent, Genius, Man

18

"The child is father of the man."

"The child is father of the man."

William Wordsworth, English Poet

Life, Father, Man

18

"Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why."

"Culture is the habit of being pleased with the best and knowing why."

Henry Van Dyke, American Poet

Habit, Being, Culture

18

"Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable."

"Modernity signifies the transitory, the fugitive, the contingent, the half of art of which the other half is the eternal and the immutable."

Charles Baudelaire, French Poet

18

"We had two grand antique professors who had been teaching at Lombard since before I was born."

"We had two grand antique professors who had been teaching at Lombard since before I was born."

Carl Sandburg, American Poet

Education, Teaching

18

"Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet."

"Peter Lucas and I live in Durham but spend a great of time in North Wales, where we have a cottage in the mountains, and in Vermont, USA, with my sister - who is a children's writer married to a poet."

Anne Stevenson, American Poet

Time, Sister, Children, Mountains

18

"'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."

"'Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined."

Alexander Pope, English Poet

Government, Education, Mind

18

"What I think is not necessarily, what I feel and what I feel is not necessarily, what I think."

"What I think is not necessarily, what I feel and what I feel is not necessarily, what I think."

Santosh Kalwar, Nepalese Poet

Awareness, Thinking, Difference, Mind, Life

18

"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat."

"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat."

Edgar Allan Poe, American Poet

Creativity, Mystery, Writing, Curiosity

18

"I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings."

"I worked probably 25 years by myself, just writing and working, not trying to publish much, not giving readings."

Mary Oliver, American Poet

Personal, Giving, Trying, Writing, Years

18

"If I place love above everything, it is because for me it is the most desperate, the most despairing state of affairs imaginable."

"If I place love above everything, it is because for me it is the most desperate, the most despairing state of affairs imaginable."

Andre Breton, French Poet

18

"Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves."

"Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves."

William Davenant, English Poet

Emotional, Calamity

18

"A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits."

"A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits."

Alexander Pope, English Poet

18

"Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years."

"Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years."

Carl Sandburg, American Poet

City, Chicago, Difference, Hell, Years

18

"A character is a completely fashioned will."

"A character is a completely fashioned will."

Novalis, German Poet

Character, Will

18

"It doesn't seem to me strange that children should like the macabre, the sensational, and the forbidden."

"It doesn't seem to me strange that children should like the macabre, the sensational, and the forbidden."

Anthony Hecht, American Poet

Family, Children, Forbidden

18

"There was a closet somewhere inside me. Every day I went near that just to open the door and see all the masks of my face that I hid there.To select one which isn't me but still would look like me, which would hide me from the world in a better way. Day after day I stored so many masks in that closet that one day I searched for my real face in it and it wasn't there. I never understood whether I lost it or I forgot how it looked like, the more I searched the most lost I felt."

"There was a closet somewhere inside me. Every day I went near that just to open the door and see all the masks of my face that I hid there.To select one which isn't me but still would look like me, which would hide me from the world in a better way. Day after day I stored so many masks in that closet that one day I searched for my real face in it and it wasn't there. I never understood whether I lost it or I forgot how it looked like, the more I searched the most lost I felt."

Akshay Vasu, Indian Poet

Psychology, Identity, Truth, Self, Deception

18

"A man in debt is so far a slave."

"A man in debt is so far a slave."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet

Business, Debt, Man

18

"I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.All seems beautiful to me.Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me; Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me."

"I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.All seems beautiful to me.Whoever denies me, it shall not trouble me; Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me."

Walt Whitman, American Poet

Self, Confidence, Acceptance, Beauty

18

"Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing."

"Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing."

Sophocles, Greek Poet

Fortune, Nothing

18

"He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust."

"He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust."

Emily Dickinson, American Poet

Poor, Spirit, Words

18

"The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected."

"The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected."

Robert Frost, American Poet

Time, Change, Perception, Morning

18

"It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself."

"It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German Poet

Limit, First, Self

18

"Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone."

"Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone."

Octavio Paz, Mexican Poet

Being, Fact, Man, Solitude

18

"Don't let the man bring you down."

"Don't let the man bring you down."

Maya Angelou, American Poet

Rebellion, Resistance, Oppression, Empowerment, Freedom

18

"When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd And the great star early droop'd in the western sky the night I mourn'd - and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring."

"When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd And the great star early droop'd in the western sky the night I mourn'd - and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring."

Walt Whitman, American Poet

Nature, Life, Mourning, Reflection

18

"A complete sharing between two people is an impossibility and whenever it seems, nevertheless, to exist, it is a narrowing, a mutual agreement which robs either one member or both of his fullest freedom and development. But, once the realization is accepted that, even between the closest human beings, infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole and against a wide sky!"

"A complete sharing between two people is an impossibility and whenever it seems, nevertheless, to exist, it is a narrowing, a mutual agreement which robs either one member or both of his fullest freedom and development. But, once the realization is accepted that, even between the closest human beings, infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole and against a wide sky!"

Rainer Maria Rilke, German Poet

Love, Distance, Freedom, Relationship

18

"The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses."

"The sharp thorn often produces delicate roses."

Ovid, Roman Poet

Contrast, Roses

18

"Memories, like everything else, are momentary."

"Memories, like everything else, are momentary."

Santosh Kalwar, Nepalese Poet

Impermanence, Memories, Life, Time

18

"When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit."

"When I consider life, it is all a cheat. Yet fooled with hope, people favor this deceit."

John Dryden, English Poet

Life, People, Hope, Deceit

18

"What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless."

"What is deservedly suffered must be borne with calmness, but when the pain is unmerited, the grief is resistless."

Ovid, Roman Poet

18

"I slide my arm from under the sleeper's head and it is numb, full of swarming pins, on the tip of each, waiting to be counted, the fallen angels sit."

"I slide my arm from under the sleeper's head and it is numb, full of swarming pins, on the tip of each, waiting to be counted, the fallen angels sit."

Wislawa Szymborska, Polish Poet

Introspection, Angels, Waiting

18

"The luck will alter and the star will rise."

"The luck will alter and the star will rise."

John Masefield, English Poet

18

"You are the stories and incidents that you never tell to anyone. You are the thoughts that you get while standing under the shower. You are those memories that won't lets you sleep at night peacefully. You are those words that you will never say while speaking with someone. You are those scars that you always hide from everyone. You are those little secrets that you will never let the world know. You are everything that you hide under the identity that you call the real you."

"You are the stories and incidents that you never tell to anyone. You are the thoughts that you get while standing under the shower. You are those memories that won't lets you sleep at night peacefully. You are those words that you will never say while speaking with someone. You are those scars that you always hide from everyone. You are those little secrets that you will never let the world know. You are everything that you hide under the identity that you call the real you."

Akshay Vasu, Indian Poet

Identity, Secrets, Emotion, Truth

18

"Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction."

"Don't be too harsh to these poems until they're typed. I always think typescript lends some sort of certainty: at least, if the things are bad then, they appear to be bad with conviction."

Dylan Thomas, Welsh Poet

Conviction, Poems

18

"We acquire the strength we have overcome."

"We acquire the strength we have overcome."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet

18

"Every time he raised his hands on her. He killed a prince from a fairy tale somewhere deep within her heart, brutally."

"Every time he raised his hands on her. He killed a prince from a fairy tale somewhere deep within her heart, brutally."

Akshay Vasu, Indian Poet

Tragedy, Abuse, Pain, Loss, Love

18

"The guilty think all talk is of themselves."

"The guilty think all talk is of themselves."

Geoffrey Chaucer, English Poet

18

"I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now."

"I was very interested in American poetry for many years. Much less now."

Norman MacCaig, Scottish Poet

Poetry, American, Now, Years

18

"Learning never stops till the very end of life's existence from whoever and at whatever time or situations."

"Learning never stops till the very end of life's existence from whoever and at whatever time or situations."

Santosh Kalwar, Nepalese Poet

Education, Learning, Growth, Knowledge, Life

18

"Time is a Test of Trouble - But not a Remedy - If such it proved it proves too There was no Melody."

"Time is a Test of Trouble - But not a Remedy - If such it proved it proves too There was no Melody."

Emily Dickinson, American Poet

Time, Trouble, Test, Reflection

18

"You mustn't forget the circumstances I have been brought up in, the little education I have had."

"You mustn't forget the circumstances I have been brought up in, the little education I have had."

Isaac Rosenberg, English Poet

Education, Circumstances, Forget

18

"The secret to unseating great power, is not to move the other direction, but to compete directly against their goals."

"The secret to unseating great power, is not to move the other direction, but to compete directly against their goals."

Bryant McGill, American Poet

Tactics, Power, Competition, Truth, Wisdom

18

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