“Live with your century; but do not be its creature.”

Only through Beauty’s morning-gate, dost thou penetrate the land of knowledge.

Time is a blooming field: nature is ever teeming with life: and all is seed, and all is fruit.

The May of life blooms once and never again.

In the ardor of pursuit men soon forget the goal from which they start.

In the society, where people are just parts in a larger machine, individuals are unable to develop fully.

Appearance rules the world.

To know thyself- in others self-concern; Would’st thou know others? read thyself–and learn!

The zeal of friends it is that razes me, And not the hate of enemies.

Illusion is brief, but repentance is long.

Votes should be weighed not counted.

He that is over-cautious will accomplish but very little.

In a narrow circle the mind grows narrow. The more one expands, the larger their aims.

A childlike mind in its simplicity practises that science of good to which the wise may be blind.

Individual character is in the right that is in strict consistence with itself. Self-contradiction is the only wrong.

The iron chain and the silken cord are both equally bonds.

Dear is my friend–yet from my foe, as from my friend, comes good: My friend shows what I can do, and my foe what I should.

While it is unlikely that poetry or art shall eliminate the reality of war in the twenty-first century, it is thrilling to know there remain individuals, and even entire communities,

His [Ben Okri’s] work poses very serious questions for the twenty-first century. Among them:

Still willing to invest in art and poetry’s own uniquely explosive contributions to the great, and small, dramas of human history.

Composers can do things that weren’t allowed in the 17th century. Until we had composers like Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff to break the rules.

I had casually rented an apartment that cost $75 a month because I expected my writing to pay my way.

The mighty edifice of Government science dominated the scene in the middle of the 20th century as a Gothic cathedral dominated a 13th century landscape. The work of many hands over many years, it universally inspired admiration, wonder and fear.

Aging will create the music of the coming century.

Thus Arm in Arm with thee I dare defy my century into the lists.