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Poet Quotes

“Poets by Death are conquer'd but the wit Of poets triumphs over it.”

Poet Wit Conquer Triumph Over It

Book:The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Samuel Johnson

Source: The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, by Samuel Johnson

“Poets like painters, thus unskilled to trace The naked nature and the living grace, With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part, And hide with ornaments their want of art. True wit is Nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.”

Want Wells Art Grace Poet Advantage Gold Wit Naked Painter Jewels Ornaments

Author:Alexander Pope

“Some have at first for wits, then poets passed, Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last.”

Firsts Lasts Next Poet Fool Critics Wit

Author:Alexander Pope

“It is surprising to see what superficial, inconsequential reasonings satisfy the most part of mankind. A piece of wit, a jest, a simile, or a quotation of an Author, passes for a mighty argument.... This weakness and effeminacy of mankind in being persuaded where they are delighted, have made them the sport of orators, poets, and men of wit.”

Men Made Sports Pieces Mankind Poet Weakness Argument Wit Reasoning Surprising Quotations Superficial Simile Delighted Jest Orators Inconsequential

Book:The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D.: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians

Source: The Life and Works of John Arbuthnot, M.D.: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians

“There were moments of despondency when Shakespeare thought himself no poet, and Raphael no painter; when the greatest wits have doubted the excellence of their happiest efforts.”

Moments Effort Poet Excellence Wit Painter Melancholy Doubted Raphael Despondency

Author:Charles Caleb Colton

“There learned arts do flourish in great honour And poets's wits are had in peerless price; Religion hath lay power, to rest upon her, Advancing virtue, and suppressing vice. For end all good, all grace there freely grows, Had people grace it gratefully to use: For God His gifts there plenteously bestows, But graceless men them greatly do abuse.”

People Men Art Ends Use Grows Virtue Grace Poet Abuse England Lays Vices Wit Honour Advancing Suppressing

Book:The poetical works of Edmund Spenser: With memoir and critical dissertations

Source: The poetical works of Edmund Spenser: With memoir and critical dissertations

“Nay, the greatest wits and poets, too, cease to live; Homer, their prince, sleeps now in the same forgotten sleep as do the others. [Lat., Adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum; Adde Heliconiadum comites; quorum unus Homerus Sceptra potitus, eadem aliis sopitu quiete est.]”

Death Sleep Poet Forgotten Wit Cease

Author:Lucretius

“The letters of famous people can be placed into two categories: there is the type of letter which becomes itself a valuable contribution to literature through its wit, style or wisdom; another kind is that whose main importance lies in the provision of a background to their author's life. Especially in the correspondence of great writers and poets, these two factors are very often combined.”

Source: The Essence of the Brontes: A Compilation with Essays

“A poem's life and death dependeth still Not on the poet's wits, but reader's will.”

Stills Poet Reader Wit Life And Death

Author:Alexander Brome

“I have never injured anybody with a mordant poem; my verse contains charges against nobody. Ingenuous, I have shunned wit steeped in venom--not a letter of mine is dipped in poisonous jest.”

Poetry Mines Poet Letters Wit Verses Injured Poisonous Jest Venom

Author:Ovid

“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

“When you set about your composing, it may be necessary for your ease, and better distillation of wit, to put on your worst clothes, and the worse the better; for an author, like a limbeck, will yield the better for having a rag about him: besides that, I have observed a gardener cut the outward rind of a tree (which is the surtout of it) to make it bear well; and this is a natural account of the usual poverty of poets, and is an argument why wits, of all men living, ought to be ill clad.”

Source: The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D. ...: With Notes, Historical and Critical

“Walking companions, like heroes, are difficult to pluck out of the crowd of acquaintances. Good dispositions, ready wit, friendly conversation serve well enough by the fireside but they prove insufficient in the field. For there you need transcendentalists-nothing less; you need poets, sages, humorists and natural philosophers.”

Needs Wells Enough Difficult Natural Fields Ready Poet Hero Walking Conversation Prove Philosopher Crowds Wit Friendly Companion Disposition Sage Acquaintance Humorists Pluck Insufficient

Author:Brooks Atkinson