Jane Hirshfield Quotes

I used to believe my art had to be about the things that brought me joy and gave me hope. But I learned that art can be found in all of life, even in pain.

Art is the highest form of hope.

As we speak of poetical beauty, so ought we to speak of mathematical beauty and medical beauty. But we do not do so; and that reason is that we know well what is the object of mathematics, and that it consists in proofs, and what is the object of medicine, and that it consists in healing. But we do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry.

We possess art lest we perish of the truth.

Poetry keeps longing alive.

Lizzie Harris's debut collection, Stop Wanting, crafts images and lines of such arresting splendor that I am very often driven to joy at the feats of beauty and healing that language is capable of bringing into being.

When everything goes right a mobile is a piece of poetry that dances with the joy of life and surprise!

Most joyful let the Poet be, it is through him that all men see.

Heart's-ease is a flower which blooms from the grave of desire.

The gods at will can shape a gladder strain, and from the lamentations at the graveside, a song of triumph may arise.

What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what-eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.

Poetry and art nourish the soul of the world with the flavor-filled substances of beauty, wisdom and truth.

Art still has truth. Take refuge there.

Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives.

Poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science. It is as impossible to live without reverence as it is without joy.

The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry, where it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay ... More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.

Poetry cannot take sides except with life.

Poetry is like air. It's one of the necessary things. Everyone benefits from poetry. And as you know, poetry is international. There are only two things that are truly international, poetry and wine.

I never dreamed of so much happiness when I was the Ugly Duckling!

The arts open your heart and mind to possibilities that are limitless. They are pathways that touch upon our brains and emotions and bring sustenance to imagination. Human beings' greatest form of communication, they walk in tandem with science and play, and best describe what it is to be human.

For me, poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we are and to who we will become.

Poets sing our human music for us.

Art is the expression of those beauties and emotions that stir the human soul.

I think it's good for people to see the positive beauty that can flower from the deepest grieving.