“To succeed [,] consider what is as though it were past, deem yourself inevitable and take credit for it. If you no longer believe, enlarge the temple.” IfsBelievePastSucceedCreditInevitableTemples Author:W. S. Merwin
“There are poets who believe that you shouldn't engage at all in any cause. And there's something to be said for that. Because you don't want to - I think most political poetry is very bad. And it's very bad because you know too much to start with. You have a sense that you're right, and you're trying to tell other people what's right. And I think that's always kind of fundamentalism, and I don't like it.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWantTryingBelieveKindSaidPoliticalCausesToo MuchPoetPoetry IsFundamentalism Author:W. S. Merwin
“What I really believe is the only hopeful relation between our life and the whole of life is one of reverence and respect and of feeling at one with it. The other attitude which is the one our society is based on is devastating and it is killing the earth and it is killing us too.” BelieveWholeFeelingsEarthLife IsAttitudeOur LivesRelationKillingContemplationHopefulOur SocietyReverence Author:W. S. Merwin
