The terror of the atom age is not the violence of the new power but the speed of man's adjustment to it, the speed of his acceptance.

Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.

Understanding humor is like dissecting a live frog. It can be done, but the frog tends to die in the process.

When a man hangs from a tree it doesn't spell justice unless he helped write the law that hanged him.

A poet dares to be just so clear and no clearer; he approaches lucid ground warily, like a mariner who is determined not to scrape his bottom on anything solid. A poet's pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it. A poet utterly clear is a trifle glaring.

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.

A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning.