Good can imagine Evil; but Evil cannot imagine Good.

Organic growth is a cyclical process; it is just as true to say that the oak is a potential acorn as it is to say the acorn is a potential oak. But the process of writing a poem, of making any art object, is not cyclical but a motion in one direction toward a definite end.

If age, which is certainly Just as wicked as youth, look any wiser, It is only that youth is still able to believe It will get away with anything, while age Knows only too well that it has got away with nothing.

Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith.

Those who hate to go to bed fear death; those who hate to get up fear life.

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.

Sob, heavy world Sob as you spin, Mantled in mist Remote from the happy.