“He believes too much, and he knows too much. That's what we call mad.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
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Famous Theodore Roethke Quotes
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Surely goodness and mercy can be more choosy.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“My grief was excessive, but I recovered.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Move over, sensitive sad minds.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“My great truth: it is possible to love the human race.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“If there is not another life, there is at least another way to live.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“We live by being what we should not be.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Sure I'm crazy But it ain't easy”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The grandeurs of the crazy man alone, Himself the middle of a roaring world.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Act your heart. There's nothing else.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“I'm blistered from insights.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“I feel the weight of stars...”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“One teaches out of love: it's an impertinence, an imposition, in the end it's terrifying.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“I am a poet: I am always hungry.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The intuitive poet often begins most felicitously, but raptures are hard to sustain.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“To be less than you are is so easy: even a child needs no lessons in this.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“After Mr. Richard M. Nixon, I feel that sincerity is no longer possible as a public attitude.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“In poetry, there are no casual readers.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The greatest assassin of life is haste.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Remind yourself once more of the absolute holiness of your task.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“People can and do understand poetry but they don't want to: it is a danger.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“What's the winter for? To remember love.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The terrible energy of the dead.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Those taught to creep become enchanted with such locomotion.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Hatred of life can rise to a mystical state.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Even a piece of bad writing can have its own mysterious life, and be a fascination.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Civilization is overrated: but there isn't anything much else.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Will's a heady master: don't follow.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The great mystery of Christianity is how it has lasted so long.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Listen to the haters: they may remind you of new ways to love.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The professor is supposed to know. I am not of that breed.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Democracy: where the semi-literate make laws and the illiterate enforce them.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The young artist: there is no other kind of mind but my own.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Transcend that vision. What is first or early is easy to believe. But... it may enchain you.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“It's not that many Americans can't think: They just don't want to.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“There is no end to what should be known about words.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“More than two days in Detroit is not permitted the human psyche.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“The most difficult thing to remember: that a poem is made of words.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Teaching: one of the few professions that permit love.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“We can forgive others everything but our own weaknesses.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke
“Once a week, take a day off to be generous-minded.”
Source: Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke