quotes from classic

We can make truth ours by actively modulating its inter-relations. This is the work of art; for reality is not based in the substance of things but in the principle of relationship. Truth is the infinite pursued by metaphysics; fact is the infinite p

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Men are cruel, but Man is kind.

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The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.

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Objects of knowledge maintain an infinite distance from us who are the knowers. For knowledge is not union. Therefore the further world of freedom awaits us there where we reach truth, not through feeling it by senses or knowing it by reason, but thr

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We manage to swallow flesh only because we do not think of the cruel and sinful thing that we do.  Cruelty... is a fundamental sin, and admits of no arguments or nice distinctions.  If only we do not allow our heart to grow callous, it protests against cruelty, is always clearly heard; and yet we go on perpetrating cruelties easily, merrily, all of us - in fact, anyone who does not join in is dubbed a crank.

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To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.

more quotes from Mary Oliver

When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

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The world grows older and grows with the ageing yet more evil.

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None merits the name of Creator but God and the poet.

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Any time not spent on love is wasted.

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Then amongst flowers and springs, Making delightful sport, Sat lovers without conflict, without flame;

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Well, one thing I'm really interested in, when I'm writing, is being accurate.

more quotes from Sharon Olds

So I did quit coffee and I did quit smoking. But I haven't managed that with drinking!

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The older I get, the more I feel almost beautiful.

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I think that my work is easy to understand because I am not a thinker, I am not a... How can I put it? I write the way I perceive, I guess.

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The teaching is very rewarding, and very time-consuming, and very exhausting. But it's wonderful. The community here at NYU is very precious to me.

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There are some fine books and essays about that. Lewis Hyde has written about alcoholism and poets and the role that society gives its writers - encouraging them to die.

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Many poets write books. They'll tell you: Well, I've got my next book, but there are two poems I need to write, one about x, one about y. This is a wonder to me.

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We're all taking on too much, we're all asking too much of ourselves. We're all wishing we could do more, and therefore just doing more.

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It might be a bad thing, not to know what's going on in the world. I can't say I really approve of it.

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