quotes from classic
/ page 1125 of 1205 /All places where women are excluded tend downward to barbarism; but the moment she is introduced, there come in with her courtesy, cleanliness, sobriety, and order.
more quotes from Harriet Beecher Stowe
To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.
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In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike.
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And yet, in a culture like ours, which is given to material comforts, and addicted to forms of entertainment that offer immediate gratification, it is surprising that so much poetry is written.
more quotes from Mark Strand
The number of people writing poems is vast, and their reasons for doing so are many, that much can be surmised from the stacks of submissions.
more quotes from Mark Strand
From the reader's view, a poem is more demanding than prose.
more quotes from Mark Strand
I think the best American poetry is the poetry that utilizes the resources of poetry rather than exploits the defects or triumphs of the poet's personality.
more quotes from Mark Strand
And Robert Lowell, of course - in his poems, we're not located in his actual life. We're located more in the externals, in the journalistic facts of his life.
more quotes from Mark Strand
I would say that American poetry has always been a poetry of personal testimony.
more quotes from Mark Strand
I tend to like poems that engage me - that is to say, which do not bore me.
more quotes from Mark Strand
I certainly can't speak for all cultures or all societies, but it's clear that in America, poetry serves a very marginal purpose. It's not part of the cultural mainstream.
more quotes from Mark Strand
Poetry is, first and last, language - the rest is filler.
more quotes from Mark Strand
There's a certain point, when you're writing autobiographical stuff, where you don't want to misrepresent yourself. It would be dishonest.
more quotes from Mark Strand
But I tend to think of the expressive part of me as rather tedious - never curious or responsive, but blind and self-serving.
more quotes from Mark Strand
And at least in poetry you should feel free to lie. That is, not to lie, but to imagine what you want, to follow the direction of the poem.
more quotes from Mark Strand
I believe that all poetry is formal in that it exists within limits, limits that are either inherited by tradition or limits that language itself imposes.
more quotes from Mark Strand
It's very hard to write humor.
more quotes from Mark Strand
For some of us, the less said about the way we do things the better.
more quotes from Mark Strand
A life is not sufficiently elevated for poetry, unless, of course, the life has been made into an art.
more quotes from Mark Strand
Usually a life turned into a poem is misrepresented.
more quotes from Mark Strand
