Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Read not Milton, for he is dry; nor Shakespeare, for he wrote of common life.
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, with his martial cloak around him.
Sweet the young muse with love intense, Which smiles o'er sleeping innocence.
I think my life is tremendously interesting, and surely, other people do too.
Abandon hope, all ye who enter here. [Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes]
Go forth and preach impostures to the world, But give them truth to build on.
Love hath so long possessed me for his own And made his lordship so familiar.
I like ghosts. I like friends. I like couplets. I like the idea of a mission.
Every stage of life has its troubles, and no man is content with his own age.
I imagined I was God for a millisecond And became speechless for a long time.
When I want to be reminded of stupidity, especially my own, I turn on the TV.
If you are my friend and say to me, "Please don't write about this," I won't.
Grief is a hole you walk around in the daytime and at night you fall into it.
We call it "Nature"; only reluctantly admitting ourselves to be "Nature" too.
...with the power of compassion there is nothing that cannot be accomplished.
I wanted to be cute. That's the terrible thing. I should have had more sense.
Guns aren't lawful; nooses give; gas smells awful. So you might as well live.
When skies are hanged and oceans drowned, the single secret will still be man
My pessimism goes to the point of suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.
Beauty is not, as fond men misdeem, an outward show of things that only seem.
Hasty wrath and heedless hazardy do breed repentance late and lasting infamy.
Others may use the ocean as their road; Only the English make it their abode.
Illustrious acts high raptures do infuse, And every conqueror creates a muse.
Music so softens and disarms the mind That not an arrow does resistance find.
The fear of hell, or aiming to be blest, savors too much of private interest.
I, being born a woman and distressed By all the needs and notions of my kind.
Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom golden in the green grass, this life can be.
I don't think you can read poetry while you're watching television very well.
The sense of flowing, which is so crucial to song, is also crucial to poetry.
Distinguisht Link in Being's endless Chain! Midway from Nothing to the Deity!
Of boasting more than of a bomb afraid, A soldier should be modest as a maid.
Modest expression is a beautiful setting to the diamond of talent and genius.
It is those who make the least display of their sorrow who mourn the deepest.
I really just love reading. It's my favorite thing, performing my poems live.
It's a big statement if you use the word 'America' in the title of your poem.
The armored cars of dreams, contrived to let us do so many a dangerous thing.
I didn't want to read French or write it; it was like a boycott, a rejection.
Black Poets should live--not leap From steel bridges, like the white boys do.
What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it.
The fruit of love's great tree is poverty; Whoever knows this knows humility.
Your identity is like your shadow: not always visible and yet always present.
I've often lost myself, in order to find the burn that keeps everything awake
A poet must be a professor of the five senses and must open doors among them.
Most of the worst errors I made in my life came from forgetting to act small.
Stones in the road? I save every single one, and one day I'll build a castle.
But do we really live? To live without knowing what life is - is that living?
I was a poet animated by philosophy, not a philosopher with poetic faculties.
Poor thieves in halters we behold; And great thieves in their chains of gold.
Temptations are a file which rub off much of the rust of our self-confidence.
He who prays without confidence cannot hope that his prayers will be granted.