Joseph Joubert Quotes

What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,--for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.

The spirit of poetry combines the profundity of the philosopher and the child's delight in bright pictures.

Poetry has been the longest pleasure of my life.

The beauty of poetry is that the creation transcends the poet.

As the falcon launched trustingly heavenward is lost to view, the course of the higher poetry often soars beyond the ken of the multitude; and, as the humble birds carol blithely round our dwellings, so the meeker lays of the muse linger tunefully about the heart.

A lot of people feel that the realm of poetry and the realm of the lyric is personal feeling and should rise above politics, which, in fact, good poetry has never done.

The great poems are not about experience, but are the experience itself, felt in the body.

The claims I'm making for art are simply the claims that we naturally make around music or around poetry. We're much more relaxed around those art forms. We're willing to ask, 'How could this find a place in my heart?'

What shall I say about poetry? What shall I say about those clouds, or about the sky? Look; look at them; look at it! And nothing more. Don't you understand anything about poetry? Leave that to the critics and the professors. For neither you, nor I, nor any poet knows what poetry is.

My 'must-have' was poetry. From the first, life meant that to me. And, fortunately, poetry is not purchasable material, but an atmosphere in which every life may expand. I found it everywhere about me.

Poetry is a mystic, sensuous mathematics of fire, smoke-stacks, waffles, pansies, people, and purple sunsets.

Music is inarticulate poesy.

Popular poets are the parish priests of the Muse, retailing her ancient divinations to a long since converted public.

The best poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can.

Writing poetry is a state of free float.

He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.

Poetry, therefore, we will call Musical Thought.

I could define poetry this way: it is that which is lost out of both prose and verse in translation.

Poetry is either language lit up by life or life lit up by language

A poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul.

Poetry, in a general sense, may be defined to be 'the expression of the imagination': and poetry is connate with the origin of man.

Beauty makes one lose one's head. Poetry is born of this decapitation

Poetry has no goal other than itself; it can have no other, and no poem will be so great, so noble, so truly worthy of the name of poem, than one written uniquely for the pleasure of writing a poem.

Poetry is a verdict rather than an intention.

Poetry is language in orbit.