I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order; – poetry = the best words in the best order.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGEEither we have an immortal soul, or we have not. If we have not, we are beasts,–the first and the wisest of beasts, it may be, but still true beasts.
More Samuel Taylor Coleridge Quotes
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Oh, the difficulty of fixing the attention of men on the world within them!
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The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.
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Tranquillity! thou better name Than all the family of Fame.
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He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity, that blends, and (as it were) fuses , each into each, by that synthetic and magical power, to which I would exclusively appropriate the name of Imagination.
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We are not of the same kind as beasts, and this also we say from our own consciousness. Therefore, methinks, it must be the possession of the soul within us that makes the difference.
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Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the myth of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes. It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it.
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I may not hope from outward forms to win / The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.
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That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.
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With all our wisdom and foresight we can take a lesson in gladness and gratitude from the happy bird that sings all night, as if the day were not long enough to tell its joy.
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How inimitably graceful children are in general-before they learn to dance.
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What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if,when you awoke,you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?
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Some men are like musical glasses; to produce their finest tones you must keep them wet.
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As a man without forethought scarcely deserves the name of a man, so forethought without reflection is but a metaphorical phrase for the instinct of a beast.
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Guilt is a timorous thing ere perpetration; despair alone makes guilty men be bold.
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A woman’s friendship borders more closely on love than man’s. Men affect each other in the reflection of noble or friendly acts; whilst women ask fewer proofs and more signs and expressions of attachment.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE