I have never, in all my life, been so odious as to regard myself as 'superior' to any living being, human or animal. I just walked alone - as I have always walked alone.

it is as unseeing to ask what is the use of poetry as it would be to ask what is the use of religion.

Eccentricity is not, as some would believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.

The great sins and fires break out of me like the terrible leaves from the bough in the violent spring. I am a walking fire, I am all leaves.

It is part of the poet's work to show each man what he sees but does not know he sees.

It is hardly respectable to be good nowadays.

As for the usefulness of poetry, its uses are many. It is the deification of reality.