"You must believe: a poem is a holy thing — a good poem, that is."

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

"ince causes are four in number, to know them all is the business of the natural philosopher, who also referring to the cause why a thing is to all of them, viz. to matter, form, that which moves, and …"

— Aristotle

Philosophy-384–-322

#philosophy

"It is true that the masses have always been led in one manner or another, and it could be said that their part in history consists primarily in allowing themselves to be led, since they represent a me…"

— René Guénon

Science1886–1951

#time

"We live in a world changing so rapidly that what we mean frequently by common sense is doing the thing that would have been right last year."

— Edwin H. Land

Science1909–1991

#time

"Faith is a beautiful thing. So are forest fires, and the color of gangrene. I think faith—especially capital-F Faith—is more dangerous and more disgusting than either. It is a substitute for thought."

— Theodore Sturgeon

Literature1918–1985

#mind