The great modern heresy in poetry is to confuse the use we make of words in a poem with modalities of speech...For true poetry is never speech but always a song.
Herbert ReadGreat changes in the destiny of mankind can be effected only in the minds of little children.
Herbert ReadIt was play rather than work which enabled man to evolve his higher faculties - everything we mean by the word 'culture'.
Herbert ReadThe most general law in nature is equity-the principle of balance and symmetry which guides the growth of forms along the lines of the greatest structural efficiency.
Herbert ReadOnce we become conscious of a feeling and attempt to make a corresponding form, we are engaged in an activity which, far from being sincere, is prepared (as any artist if he is sincere will tell you) to moderate feelings to fit the form. The artist's feeling for form is stronger than a formless feeling.
Herbert Read