The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.
Karl MarxThese poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn‘ fool if they weren’t.
Dylan ThomasSuperstition is the poetry of life.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheGeorge is a radio announcer, and when he walks under a bridge… you can’t hear him talk.
Steven WrightWhat makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
Samuel JohnsonDon’t run if you can walk. Don’t walk if you can stand. Don’t stand if you can sit. Don’t sit if you can lie down.
Lou HoltzI love movement. I love moshing.
Billie EilishThey might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.
Emily DickinsonAnd whether you’re an honest man, or whether you’re a thief, depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.
Benjamin FranklinWoe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.
VoltaireI imagine that yes is the only living thing.
E. E. CummingsThere appears to be something to do with vehicles and movement that stimulates my writing.
J. K. RowlingNo poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.
Marcus Tullius CiceroIn the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.
Richard M. NixonBut time has set its maggot on their track.
Dylan ThomasI went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay.
Dylan ThomasSurely the wake left behind by mankind’s forward march reveals its movement just as clearly as the spray thrown up elsewhere by the prow.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinPhysical elegance, which is what I am talking about here, comes from the body. This is no superficial matter, but rather the way that man found to honour the way he places his two feet on the ground.
Paulo CoelhoReason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.
C. S. LewisThe reserve of modern assertions is sometimes pushed to extremes, in which the fear of being contradicted leads the writer to strip himself of almost all sense and meaning.
Winston ChurchillPoetry has done enough when it charms, but prose must also convince.
H. L. MenckenIn a certain way, it’s the sound of the words, the inflection and the way the song is sung and the way it fits the melody and the way the syllables are on the tongue that has as much of the meaning as the actual, literal words.
David ByrneWho shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?
Virginia WoolfIf any philosopher had been asked for a definition of infinity, he might have produced some unintelligible rigmarole, but he would certainly not have been able to give a definition that had any meaning at all.
Bertrand RussellO‘ What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
William ShakespeareIn all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.
Maya AngelouThe meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.
Karl MarxI’m not trying to be sexy. It’s just my way of expressing myself when I move around.
Elvis PresleyLyrics are always misleading because they make people think that that’s what the music is about.
Brian EnoLike a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.
Maya AngelouAn ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.
Lao TzuThe genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.
Margaret AtwoodI’m nobody, who are you?
Emily DickinsonI learn poetry, learn text, and that really keeps you alive.
Anthony HopkinsI have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.
Robert FrostAs Bromberger observed, rules are understood to be elements of the computational systems that determine the sound and meaning of the infinite array of expressions of a language; the information so derived is accessed by other systems in language use.
Noam ChomskyI’m one of those people who says, ‚yes, cinema died when they invented sound.‘
George LucasHumor has justly been regarded as the finest perfection of poetic genius.
Thomas CarlyleBeauties in vain their pretty eyes may roll; charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
Alexander PopeIt is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.
Ralph Waldo EmersonMay I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.
Franz KafkaIt’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.
Jordan PetersonA cherub’s face, a reptile all the rest.
Alexander PopeEvery day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWords differently arranged have a different meaning, and meanings differently arranged have different effects.
Blaise PascalA subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.
Friedrich NietzscheIndeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
Virginia WoolfWork gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.
Stephen HawkingThe rudiment of verse may, possibly, be found in the spondee.
Edgar Allan PoeI don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever. I’m not really book-smart.
EminemA poem is a naked person… Some people say that I am a poet.
Bob DylanTo make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.
Emily DickinsonIf a poet is anybody, he is somebody to whom things made matter very little – somebody who is obsessed by Making.
E. E. CummingsBeauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows us itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world.
Oscar WildePoetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.
David HareTo see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.
John RuskinI was afraid that science-fiction buffs and everybody would say things like, ‚You know, there’s no sound in outer space.‘
George LucasTo be a poet is a condition, not a profession.
Robert FrostDoubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.
William ShakespeareAmerica makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.
E. E. Cummings