To err is human (to forgive divine).

Choice of attention – to pay attention to this and ignore that – is to the inner life what choice of action is to the outer. In both cases, a man is responsible for his...

Fear nothing but what thy industry may prevent; be confident of nothing but what fortune cannot defeat; it is no less folly to fear what is impossible to be avoided than to be secure when...

Freud has shown one thing very clearly: that we only forget our infancy by burying it in the unconscious; and that the problems of this difficult period find their solution under a disguised form in...

These groups within a society can he distinguished according as to whether, like an army or an orchestra, they function as a single body; or whether they are united merely to defend their common interests...

You are always new, The last of your kisses was ever the sweetest.

Art is born of humiliation.

The teachers I had myself, the best of them were quite extraordinary, and really did inspire one into reading, or indeed, writing.

We must move in our recovery from one addiction to another for two major reasons: first, we have not recognized and treated the underlying addictive process, and second, we have not accurately isolated and focused...

Whenever we condemn, we cloak the world in pain.

Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out.

Man is everywhere still in chains.

Her face betokened all things dear and good, The light of somewhat yet to come was there Asleep, and waiting for the opening day, When childish thoughts, like flowers would drift away.

Much have I traveled in the realms of gold, and many goodly states and kingdoms seen.

For whatever reason, people, including very well-educated people or people otherwise interested in reading, do not read poetry.

Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternatives.

Meditation is the life of the soul: Action, the soul of meditation. and honor the reward of action.

A father is a man who expects his son to be as good a man as he meant to be, A father is someone who carries pictures where his money used to be.

The modern work of art, as I have said, is a symbol.

Here lies one whose name was writ in water.

You don’t want madhouse and the whole thing there.

It’s not as if I’m trying to write crossword puzzles to which one might find an answer at the back of the book or anything like that.

Where ignorance is bliss, Itis folly to be wise.

For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?

Wickedness is its own punishment.

I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state...

To realize that new world we must prefer the values of freedom and equality above all other values – above personal wealth, technical power and nationalism.

Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works.

Art is our chief means of breaking bread with the dead.

We simply have not kept in touch with poetry.

Good health is not something we can buy. However, it can be an extremely valuable savings account.

And love is love in beggars and in kings.

I’d rather see folks doubt what’s true than accept what isn’t.

Morality, as has often been pointed out, is antecedent to religion-it even exists in a rudimentary form among animals.

Against her ankles as she trod The lucky buttercups did nod.

‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Frost isn’t exactly despised but not enough people have worked out what a brilliant poet he was.

After I’m dead I’d rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.

Anger may repast with thee for an hour, but not repose for a night; the continuance of anger is hatred, the continuance of hatred turns malice.

A leading authority is anyone who has guessed right more than once.

The most general law in nature is equity-the principle of balance and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along the lines of the greatest structural efficiency.

The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeable evaporate.

Waiting for the end, boys, waiting for the end.

Last year I was a judge for a prize in England, the T.S. Eliot Prize, so I read everything that was published in England last year.

When you talk about changing the rules, that takes time, and it always involves more than just a committee.

A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.

It is the lot of man but once to die.

I call religion a natural authority, but it has usually been conceived as a supernatural authority.

We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization a new religion will emerge,just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman civilization.

Philosophy will clip an angel’s wings.