I was under twenty when I deliberately put it to myself one night after good conversation that there are moments when we actually touch in talk what the best writing can only come near. The curse of our book language is not so much that it keeps forever to the same set phrases . . . but that it sounds forever with the same reading tones. We must go out into the vernacular for tones that haven't been brought to book.

Every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world.

Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

I alone of English writers have consciously set myself to make music out of what I may call the sound of sense.

A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.

Talking is a hydrant in the yard and writing is a faucet upstairs in the house. Opening the first takes the pressure off the second.

I am sure I have heard this several times from places I can't recall, but it's not already in the Gaia Quotes database, so I add this profound insight from the fields of psychological healing and spiritual evolution. It sure has helped me.