“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 aspects of human life that are not purely destructive, and there is a need to pay attention to the things around us while they are still around us. And you know, in a way, if you don't pay that attention, the anger is just bitterness.” IfsKnowsWayNeedsHumansStillsPayAttentionAspectPay AttentionHuman LifeDestructiveBitterness Author:W. S. Merwin
“We're losing a species every few seconds. We cannot put them back. If we change our mind and say, 'Oops, we made a mistake' - it's too late. This is the world we live with.” IfsWorldMindMadeMistakeLateLosingSpeciesToo LateSecondsMade A Mistake Author:W. S. Merwin
“If there'd been a better-balanced society, where there were other ways of making a decent living, I think it might have been different. That's not the way this setup work.” IfsThinkingWayHas BeensDifferentMightDecentBalancedMight Have BeenSetups Author:W. S. Merwin
“If you can't bear what's happening to the natural world, if you can't bear the way we treat each other; if you can't bear wars, you just can't bear the whole idea of war, which is possibly unavoidable. But still, you resist it. Because you just hate our treating each other that way and causing that suffering.” IfsWorldWayStillsIdeasWarWholeSufferingHateNaturalBearsHappeningsTreatsNatural World Author:W. S. Merwin
“Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing.” IfsEndsWholePoetryLostJokesPoetry IsOne Word Author:W. S. Merwin
“I had hardly begun to read I asked how can you ever be sure that what you write is really any good at all and he said you can't you can't you can never be sure you die without knowing whether anything you wrote was any good if you have to be sure don't write” IfsWritingSaidDiesKnowing Author:W. S. Merwin
