Best poet & genius Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“It has been observed before that images, however beautiful, though faithfully copied from nature, and as accurately represented in words, do not of themselves characterize the poet. They become proofs of original genius only as far as they are modified by a predominant passion; or by associated thoughts or images awakened by that passion; or when they have the effect of reducing multitude to unity, or succession to an instant; or lastly, when a human and intellectual life is transferred to them from the poet's spirit.”

Source: Biographia Literaria: Or, Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions

“Every true poet, I thought, must be original and originality a condition of poetic genius; so that each poet is like a species in nature (not an individuum genericum or specificum ) and can never recur. That nothing shd. be old or borrowed however cannot be.”

Conditions Poet Genius Originals Species Poetic Originality Borrowed Very True

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Illustrated)

“I think a good deal may be said to extenuate the fault of bad Poets. What we call a Genius, is hard to be distinguish'd by a man himself, from a strong inclination: and if his genius be ever so great, he can not at first discover it any other way, than by giving way to that prevalent propensity which renders him the more liable to be mistaken.”

Ifs Thinking Men Way Giving Firsts May Said Hard Strong Deals Poet Genius Faults Mistaken Can Not Inclination Liable Propensity Giving Way

Book:Poems: Pastoral poetry, and An essay on criticism

Source: Poems: Pastoral poetry, and An essay on criticism

“Virtue is as little to be acquired by learning as genius; nay, the idea is barren, and is only to be employed as an instrument, in the same way as genius in respect to art. It would be as foolish to expect that our moral and ethical systems would turn out virtuous, noble, and holy beings, as that our aesthetic systems would produce poets, painters, and musicians.”

Way Littles Art Ideas Would Be Turns Moral Virtue Produce Poet Genius Holy Musician Instruments Noble Foolish Painter Ethical Aesthetic Virtuous Employed Barren

Author:Arthur Schopenhauer

“Constancy will always be the genius of love, the indication of that strength which constitutes the poet. A man should possess all women in his wife, like those squalid poetasters of the seventeenth century who made fair Irises and dazzling Chloes of their lowly Manons.”

Men Should Made Wife Century Poet Genius Fairs Indication Chloe Constancy Dazzling Irises

Author:Honore de Balzac

“The true historical genius, to our thinking, is that which can see the nobler meaning of events that are near him, as the true poet is he who detects the divine in the casual; and we somewhat suspect the depth of his insight into the past who cannot recognize the godlike of to-day under that disguise in which it always visits us.”

Thinking Past Events Divine Poet Genius Historical Depth Insight Suspects Disguise Casual Godlike

Book:My Study Windows

Source: My Study Windows

“Genius, that power which constitutes a poet; that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies and animates.”

Energy Quality Poet Cold Genius Judgment Amplify

Book:Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets

Source: Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets

“The all importance of clothes has sprung up in the intellect of the dandy without effort, like an instinct of genius; he is inspired with clothes, a poet of clothes.”

Effort Poet Genius Clothes Importance Instinct Inspired Intellect Sprung Dandy Sprung Up

Book:The Collected Works of Thomas Carlyle

Source: The Collected Works of Thomas Carlyle

“To clothe the fiery thought In simple words succeeds, For still the craft of genius is To mask a king in weeds.”

Stills Poetry Simple Poet Genius Kings Succeed Crafts Mask Weed Fiery Simple Words

Book:Emerson's Literary Criticism

Source: Emerson's Literary Criticism

“If you criticize a fine genius, the odds are that you are out of your reckoning, and, instead of the poet, are censuring your owncaricature of him.”

Ifs Poet Fine Genius Criticism Criticize Odds Reckoning

Author:Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and so defends from the insanities.”

Humor Poet Genius Wit Insanity Ornaments

Author:Walter Scott

“Genius in the poet, like the nomad of Arabia, ever a wanderer, still ever makes a home where the well or the palm-tree invites it to pitch the tent. Perpetually passing out of himself and his own positive circumstantial condition of being into other hearts and into other conditions, the poet obtains his knowledge of human life by transporting his own life into the lives of others.”

“genius is original, unique; and in whatever form it may develop itself is the greatest gift that can be given to man, the strongest known link between the material life we have and the spiritual life that we can only guess at. Every great poet, painter, or musician - every inventor or man of science, every fine actor or orator, comes to us as the exponent of something diviner than we know. We cannot understand it, but we feel it, and acknowledge it.”

“There are ancient and modern poems which breathe, in their entirety and in every detail, the divine breath of irony. In such poemsthere lives a real transcendental buffoonery. Their interior is permeated by the mood which surveys everything and rises infinitely above everything limited, even above the poet's own art, virtue, and genius; and their exterior form by the histrionic style of an ordinary good Italian buffo.”

“Genius everywhere is one. In the Orient and in the Occident the deep thinkers are kin, the poets are cousins, the pioneers of the spirit are the messengers of peace and good will to the world. Their works are the open highways between nations, and they themselves are the ever living guardians and guides.”

World Spirit Nations Poet Genius Guides Thinker Cousin Highways Guardian Good Will Pioneers Messengers Deep Thinker

Book:The Book of Khalid: A Critical Edition

Source: The Book of Khalid: A Critical Edition

“Almost all the noblest things that have been achieved in the world, have been achieved by poor men; poor scholars, poor professional men, poor artisans and artists, poor philosophers, poets, and men of genius.”

Men World Has Beens Artist Poor Poet Genius Philosopher Scholar Poor Man Artisans

Book:Morals and Dogma : Scottish Rite in Freemasonry

Source: Morals and Dogma : Scottish Rite in Freemasonry

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