The job of the poet is to render the world-to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.

To fail to love is not to exist at all.

It’s a curious thing. I suppose most people think of artists as impatient but I don’t know of any first-rate artist who hasn’t manifested in his career an appalling patience, a willingness to wait and to do his best now in the expectation that next year he will do better.

Weightless in water, swift as the wind, Subtle of purpose - a feather blown - I go with my oarsmen where they will, My beautiful body and theirs all one.

There is one thing we can do, and the happiest of people are those who do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present.

Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail.

To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.