Quotes about Poetry

Robert Frost

Poet

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

Poetry

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T. S. Eliot

Poet, Essayist, Publisher, Playwright, Critic

The bad poet is usually unconscious where he ought to be conscious, and conscious where he ought to be unconscious.

Consciousness - Poetry

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Socrates

Musician, Philosopher, Philosopher

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

Decision - Finding - Inspiration - Instinct - Kindness - Knowledge - Meaning - Poetry - Prophecy - Wisdom - Writing

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Aristotle

Philosopher

As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail.

Amplify - Making - Poetry - Story - Writing

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Robert Frost

Poet

Summary riposte To the dreary wail There's no knowing what Love is all about. Poets know a lot.

Knowledge - Poetry

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Robert Frost

Poet

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

Conditioning - Poetry - Professionals

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Neale Donald Walsch

Writer, Author, Author

I believe that humanity now is desperately calling for new ideas. These new ideas must come from spiritual teachers and artists, from poets and philosophers, from educators and ecologists, from postal clerks and miners and traffic cops and nurses and waiters and musicians and cooks and cleaners and from...Regular People Everywhere. That is to say, from YOU.

Art - Belief - Calling - Clean - Cooking - Education - Music - Nursing - People - Philosophy - Poetry - Spiritual - Teaching - Waiting

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Alice Walker

Novelist, Poet, Activist

I started out as a poet. I've always been a poet since I was 7 or 8. And so I feel myself to be fundamentally a poet who got into writing novels.

Feelings - Poetry

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

One more royal trait properly belongs to the poet. I mean his cheerfulness, without which no man can be a poet,--for beauty is his aim. He loves virtue, not for its obligation, but for its grace; he delights in the world, in man, in woman, for the lovely light that sparkles from them. Beauty, the spirit of joy and hilarity, he sheds over the universe.

Aiming - Hilarious - Man - Meaning - Obligations - Poetry - Royalty - Spirits

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Arthur Schopenhauer

Philosopher

A poet or philosopher should have no fault to find with his age if it only permits him to do his work undisturbed in his own corner; nor with his fate if the corner granted him allows of his following his vocation without having to think about other people.

Age - Fate - Fault - Follower - People - Permission - Philosophy - Poetry - Thinking - Vocation

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Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Politician, Novelist, Novelist

I always had understood that dying of love was mere poetic license.

Death - Poetry

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Henry David Thoreau

Essayist, Poet, Philosopher, Critic, Historian

The murmurs of many a famous river on the other side of the globe reach even to us here, as to more distant dwellers on its banks;many a poet's stream, floating the helms and shields of heroes on its bosom.

Heroism - Inspiration - Poetry

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Samuel Johnson

Writer, Poet, Lexicographer

New arts are long in the world before poets describe them; for they borrow everything from their predecessors, and commonly derive very little from nature or from life.

Art - Poetry - World - Writing

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

By virtue of this science the poet is the Namer, or Language-maker, naming things sometimes after their appearance, sometimes after their essence, and giving to every one its own name and not another's, thereby rejoicing the intellect, which delights in detachment or boundary.

Linguistics - Making - Poetry

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Natural Philosopher, Diplomat, Civil Servant

Whoever would understand the poet Must go into the poet's country. [Ger., Wer den Dichter will verstehen Muss in Dichters Lande gehen.]

Countries - Poetry

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Alexandre Dumas

Novelist, playwright

There are some situations which men understand by instinct, by which reason is powerless to explain; in such cases the greatest poet is he who gives utterance to the most natural and vehement outburst of sorrow. Those who hear the bitter cry are as much impressed as if they listened to an entire poem, and when th sufferer is sincere they are right in regarding his outburst as sublime.

Bitterness - Crying - Impression - Man - Poetry - Suffering

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Oscar Wilde

Poet, Playwright

Poets know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions.

Poetry - Publishing

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Steve Jobs

Business Magnate, Investor

Part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians. They also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world. But if it hadn't been computer science, these people would have been doing amazing things in other fields.

Art - Good - Greatness - Making - Music - Poetry - Science - Work

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

Essayist, Lecturer, Philosopher, Poet

Nor sequent centuries could hit Orbit and sum of SHAKSPEARE's wit. The men who lived with him became Poets, for the air was fame.

Man - Poetry

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Gilbert K. Chesterton

Writer, Writer

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.

Poetry - Silence

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