Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.

I went to the museum where they had all the heads and arms from the statues that are in all the other museums.

The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion.

I don’t know which will go first – rock ‚n‘ roll or Christianity.

Why should poetry have to make sense?

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

Nothing can affect my voice, it’s so bad.

We have listened too long to the courtly Muses of Europe.

I’m happy to be a writer – of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn’t a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.

Without publicity there can be no public support, and without public support every nation must decay.

Whatever final judgment awaits ‚Bush v. Gore‘ in the annals of history, I am certain that the good work and good faith of the U.S. federal judiciary as a whole will continue to sustain public confidence at a level never beyond repair.

Happy the man whose wish and care a few paternal acres bound, content to breathe his native air in his own ground.

Physics has a history of synthesizing many phenomena into a few theories.

Poetry is the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness.

When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

My father used to have an expression. He’d say, ‚Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community.‘

The uniform makes for brotherhood, since when universally adopted it covers up all differences of class and country.

The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of because words diminish your feelings – words shrink things that seem timeless when they are in your head to no more than living size when they are brought out.

At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

It seems as if an age of genius must be succeeded by an age of endeavour; riot and extravagance by cleanliness and hard work.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.

I sent American troops to Iraq to make its people free, not to make them American. Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way.

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn’t everything.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

By 1960, the South Africans knew that they were becoming a pariah state.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.

No compliment can be eloquent, except as an expression of indifference.

I learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.

I don’t care about age. Nor do I care about those who do not accept the science. I don’t have as much experience, and therefore I listen more. But I also have the right to express my opinion, no matter my age.

The universal order and the personal order are nothing but different expressions and manifestations of a common underlying principle.

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Ultimately, a real understanding of history means that we face nothing new under the sun.

The separation of church and state is a source of strength, but the conscience of our nation does not call for separation between men of state and faith in the Supreme Being.

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

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry – writing at writing.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.

A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

I hold a lot of things in. I’m always making sure everybody is okay. I usually don’t rage; I usually don’t curse. So for me, it’s a great thing to be able to scream and say whatever I want.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

I got no quarrel with them Vietcong.

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.

A cherub’s face, a reptile all the rest.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.

I was a little girl in World War II and I’m used to being freed by Americans.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.