Wallace Stevens Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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

  10 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

• Day after day, throughout the winter,
  We hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason
  In a world of wind and frost.

  Wallace Stevens

  Determination, Winter, Wind

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens”, p.124, Vintage

  5 Copy quote

• Man is an eternal sophomore.

  Wallace Stevens

  Men, Sophomore, Eternal

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

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  54 Copy quote

• True villains are extremely photogenic.

  Wallace Stevens

  Villain, Photogenic

  143 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

  13 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

  4 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

  46 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”

  60 Copy quote

• The purpose of poetry is to make life complete in itself.

  Wallace Stevens

  Poetry, Purpose, Poetry Is

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.243, Vintage

  4 Copy quote

• God and the imagination are one.

  Wallace Stevens

  Imagination, Candle Lights, Candle

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

  12 Copy quote

• A change of style is a change of meaning.

  Wallace Stevens

  Style

  6 Copy quote

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

  Wallace Stevens

  Everyday, World

  32 Copy quote

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

  Wallace Stevens

  People, Water, Shapes

  23 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

  33 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

  13 Copy quote

• All poetry is experimental poetry.

  Wallace Stevens

  Poetry, Poetry Is

  1957 Opus Posthumous, Aphorisms,'Adagia'.

  4 Copy quote

• The poet makes silk dresses out of worms.

  Wallace Stevens

  Poetry, Dresses, Worms

  1957 Opus Posthumous, Aphorisms,'Adagia'.

  15 Copy quote

• I do not know which to prefer -
  The beauty of inflections
  Or the beauty of innuendoes,
  The blackbird whistling
  Or just after.

  Wallace Stevens

  Beauty, Music, Silence

  'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird' (1923)

  36 Copy quote

• Poetry is a means of redemption.

  Wallace Stevens

  Mean, Poetry, Redemption

  1957 Opus Posthumous, Aphorisms,'Adagia'.

  7 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

• One cannot spend one's time in being modern when there are so many more important things to be.

  Wallace Stevens

  Time, Important, Modern

  Wallace Stevens (2011). “Opus Posthumous: Poems, Plays, Prose”, p.255, Vintage

  15 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”

  10 Copy quote

• Reality is not what it is. It consists of the many realities which it can be made into.

  Wallace Stevens

  Reality, Made

  7 Copy quote

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