"Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't."

Theodore Roethke Literature See all quotes by Theodore Roethke →

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“Stanely Kunitz on his friend Theodore Roethke”

“In our age, if a boy or girl is untalented, the odds are in favor of their thinking they want to write.”

“There's a point where plainness is no longer a virtue, when it becomes excessively bald, wrenched.”

“Being, not doing, is my first joy.”

“You can't make poetry simply by avoiding clichés.”

“Roethke at the Modern American Poetry Site”

Resonant Thoughts

"Man himself is exalted, and paradoxical though it may seem to be, this means the crushing of man. Man's enslavement is the reverse side of the glory, value, and importance that are ascribed to him. Th…"

— Jacques Ellul

Literature1912–1994

#freedom

"I would rather hire a man with enthusiasm, than a man who knows everything."

— John D. Rockefeller

Business1839–1937

#knowledge

"The means employed by Nature to bring about the development of all the capacities of men is their antagonism in society, so far as this is, in the end, the cause of a lawful order among men."

— Immanuel Kant

Philosophy1724–1804

#justice

"Among the four great elements recognized by Buddhism, three--fire, water, and wind--are frequently associated with disasters, but earth is most often identified with stability. Still, in the Saiko era…"

— Kamo no Chōmei

Literature1153–1216

#time