Of all possible subjects, travel is the most difficult for an artist, as it is the easiest for a journalist.

The sky is darkening like a stain Something is going to fall like rain And it won't be flowers

We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.

The primary function of poetry, as of all the arts, is to make us more aware of ourselves and the world around us. I do not know if such increased awareness makes us more moral or more efficient. I hope not. I think it makes us more human, and I am quite certain it makes us more difficult to deceive.

Machines have no political opinions, but they have profound political effects. They demand a strict regimentation of time, and, by abolishing the need for manual skill, have transformed the majority of the population from workers into laborers. There are, that is to say, fewer and fewer jobs which a man can find a pride and satisfaction in doing well, more and more which have no interest in themselves and can be valued only for the money they provide.

A tremendous number of people in America work very hard at something that bores them. Even a rich man thinks he has to go down to the office everyday. Not because he likes it but because he can't think of anything else to do.

And none will hear the postman’s knock Without a quickening of the heart. For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?