Wallace Stevens Quotes

Quotes about:

• Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

  Wallace Stevens

  Truth, Lakes, Hiking

  "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction". Poem by Wallace Stevens, 1942.

  56 Copy quote

• It is not everyday that the world arranges itself into a poem.

  Wallace Stevens

  Everyday, World

  32 Copy quote

• A poem need not have a meaning and like most things in nature often does not have.

  Wallace Stevens

  Writing, Doe, Needs

  5 Copy quote

• Throw away the light, the definitions, and say what you see in the dark.

  Wallace Stevens

  Dark, Light, Definitions

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p.183, Vintage

  14 Copy quote

• The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself.

  Wallace Stevens

  Inspirational, Beautiful, Travel

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.249, Vintage

  47 Copy quote

• Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor.

  Wallace Stevens

  Reality, Metaphor

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.260, Vintage

  14 Copy quote

• Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.

  Wallace Stevens

  People, Water, Shapes

  26 Copy quote

• Imagination is the power of the mind over the possibilities of things.

  Wallace Stevens

  Imagination, Mind, Possibility

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Necessary Angel: Essays on Reality and the Imagination”, p.136, Vintage

  11 Copy quote

• It's not always easy to tell the difference between thinking and looking out of the window.

  Wallace Stevens

  Thinking, Differences, Entrepreneur

  Wallace Stevens (1966). “Letters”

  11 Copy quote

• Time is a horse that runs in the heart, a horse
  Without a rider on a road at night.
  The mind sits listening and hears it pass.

  Wallace Stevens

  Running, Time, Horse

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Palm at the End of the Mind: Selected Poems and a Play”, p.339, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• Make the visible a little hard to see.

  Wallace Stevens

  Littles, Visible, Hard

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p.311, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• True villains are extremely photogenic.

  Wallace Stevens

  Villain, Photogenic

  147 Copy quote

• The imagination is one of the forces of nature.

  Wallace Stevens

  Imagination, Force, Forces Of Nature

  Wallace Stevens (1997). “Collected Poetry and Prose”

  61 Copy quote

• I thought how utterly we have forsaken the Earth, in the sense of excluding it from our thoughts. There are but few who consider its physical hugeness, its rough enormity. It is still a disparate monstrosity, full of solitudes, barrens, wilds. It still dwarfs, terrifies, crushes. The rivers still roar, the mountains still crash, the winds still shatter. Man is an affair of cities. His gardens, orchards and fields are mere scrapings. Somehow, however, he has managed to shut out the face of the giant from his windows. But the giant is there, nevertheless.

  Wallace Stevens

  Crush, Men, Garden

  34 Copy quote

• It is necessary to any originality to have the courage to be an amateur.

  Wallace Stevens

  Funny Basketball, Originality

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.250, Vintage

  8 Copy quote

• God and the imagination are one.

  Wallace Stevens

  Imagination, Candle Lights, Candle

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Selected Poems”, p.295, Knopf

  13 Copy quote

• The way through the world is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.

  Wallace Stevens

  Journey, World, Way

  Wallace Stevens (1997). “Collected Poetry and Prose”

  45 Copy quote

• Conceptions are artificial. Perceptions are essential.

  Wallace Stevens

  Perception, Essentials, Artificial

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.246, Vintage

  12 Copy quote

• Metaphor creates a new reality from which the original appears to be unreal.

  Wallace Stevens

  Reality, Metaphor, Unreal

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.250, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• The house was quiet and the world was calm. The reader became the book.

  Wallace Stevens

  Book, House, World

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p.358, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• Accuracy of observation is the equivalent of accuracy of thinking.

  Wallace Stevens

  Science, Thinking, Observation

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.240, Vintage

  14 Copy quote

• Man is an eternal sophomore.

  Wallace Stevens

  Men, Sophomore, Eternal

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.250, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• The world about us would be desolate except for the world within us.

  Wallace Stevens

  Would Be, World, Desolate

  Wallace Stevens (1951). “The Relations Between Poetry and Painting”

  20 Copy quote

• The mind is smaller than the eye.

  Wallace Stevens

  Eye, Mind

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p.161, Vintage

  6 Copy quote

• It is never the thing but the version of the thing.

  Wallace Stevens

  Versions

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p.332, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

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