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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: you are all stardust.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Stars, Healing, Hands

  YouTube Channel "Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science"/"'A Universe From Nothing' by Lawrence Krauss, AAI 2009", www.youtube.com. October 21, 2009.

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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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• A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself.

  E. M. Forster

  Poetry, Together, Literature

  Two Cheers for Democracy "Anonymity: An Enquiry" (1951)

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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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• 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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• God is the perfect poet.

  Robert Browning

  Godly, Perfect, Poetry

  'Paracelsus' (1835) pt. 2, l. 648

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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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• When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

  Niels Bohr

  Inspirational, Creating, Poetry

  Niels Bohr's response to questions on the nature of language during his first meeting with Werner Heisenberg (Summer 1920), as quoted in "Discussions about Language", 1933, in Robert J. Pranger "Defense Implications of International Indeterminacy" (p. 11), 1972, and in Steve Giles "Theorizing Modernism: Essays in Critical Theory" (p. 28), 1993.

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• Every healthy man can do without food for two days — but without poetry, never!

  Charles Baudelaire

  Food, Men, Two

  "Baudelaire as a literary critic".

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

  Andre Gide

  Sarcastic, Poetry, Knows

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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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• Humor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Humor, Poetic License, Perfection

  Thomas Carlyle (1825). “Carlyle's Works ...”

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• Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.

  Carl Sandburg

  Poetry, Literature, Synthesis

  Atlantic Monthly Mar. 1923 "Poetry Considered"

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

  Robert Frost

  Love, Life, Motivational

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