Poetic Quotes

• Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Love, Fear, Philosophy

  Saint Thomas (Aquinas) (1971). “Saint Thomas Aquinas”

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• Always be a poet, even in prose.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Writing, Poetry, Literature

  Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.108, Courier Corporation

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• Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.

  Marianne Moore

  Inspirational, Life, Art

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• A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

  W. H. Auden

  Love, Passion, Language Words

  "Poets at Work" by W. H. Auden, (p. 170), 1948.

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• There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Respect, Soldier, Three

  "Intimate journals: Mon cœur mis à nu". Book by Charles Baudelaire, 1864.

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• A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman.

  Wallace Stevens

  Writing, Men, Poetry

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• Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity.

  Henry Beston

  Religious, Travel, Adventure

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• Somehow, in the novel format, I don't really like to do upfront, ideological discussion. In my heart, literature remains a poetic and ambiguous medium. On the other hand, I trained as a documentary filmmaker in film school, so my films very much reflect reality and socio-political problems. They're less subtle I would say.

  Xiaolu Guo

  Heart, School, Reality

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• The truth of religion comes from its symbolic rendering of man's moral experience; it proceeds intuitively and imaginatively. Its falsehood comes from its attempt to substitute itself for science and to pretend that its poetic statements are information about reality.

  Eugene Genovese

  Reality, Men, Information

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• Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.

  Pablo Casals

  Music, Beautiful, Heart

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.

  James Dickey

  Rain, Poetry, Lightning

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• Metaphors are dangerous. Love begins with a metaphor. Which is to say, love begins at the point when a woman enters her first word into our poetic memory.

  Milan Kundera

  Love, Dream, Memories

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• I think a poet is anybody who wouldn't call himself a poet.

  Bob Dylan

  Thinking, Poet

  Bob Dylan (2007). “Dylan on Dylan: The Essential Interviews”, Hodder & Stoughton

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• Dancing is the body made poetic.

  Ernst Bacon

  Dance, Dancing, Ballet

  Ernst Bacon (2013). “Notes on the Piano”, p.151, Courier Corporation

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• The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

  Jean Cocteau

  Poetry, Invention, Poet

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• Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason.

  Novalis

  Inspiring, Healing, Poetry

  "Quote, Unquote". Book by Jonathan Williams, p. 136, 1989.

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• Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.

  Thomas Gray

  Poetry, Breathe, Gray

  'The Progress of Poesy' (1757) l. 110

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• Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Beautiful, Mirrors, Poetry

  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1840). “A defence of poetry. Essay on the literature, arts, and manners of the Athenians. Preface to the Banquet of Plato. The banquet”, p.33

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• As to the pure mind all things are pure, so to the poetic mind all things are poetical.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Mind, Purity, All Things

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1866). “Kavanagh. Driftwood”, p.305

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• Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

  Don Marquis

  Education, Learning, Knowledge

  Don Marquis, William McCollum (1982). “Selected letters of Don Marquis”, Northwoods Pr

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• To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.

  Robert Frost

  Love, Life, Motivational

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• 'Therefore' is a word the poet must not know.

  Andre Gide

  Sarcastic, Poetry, Knows

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• Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

  Jean Cocteau

  Life, Art, Children

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

  Jean Cocteau

  Nurse, Rose, Poetry

  Jean Cocteau (1926*). “A Call to Order, Written Between the Years 1918 and 1926 and Including "Cock and Harlequin", "Professional Secrets", and Other Critical Essays”

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• There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only poets know.

  William Cowper

  Pain, Poetry, Pleasure

  'The Task' (1785) bk. 2 'The Timepiece' l. 285

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