“There are notes in the poet's intelligence that belong to that of woman, and these are the ones that express tenderness, passion and feeling.”

Original: En la escala de la inteligencia del poeta hay notas que pertenecen á la de la mujer, y éstas son las que expresan la ternura, la pasión y el sentimiento. — He places tenderness and emotional sensitivity at the heart of poetic intelligence. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Feeling
• Poetry
• Tenderness

“The true genius has certain extraordinary attributes which Balzac calls feminine, and which indeed they are.”

Original: El genio verdadero tiene algunos atributos extraordinarios, que Balzac llama femeninos, y que, efectivamente, lo son. — Bécquer associates creative genius with qualities traditionally regarded as feminine, particularly sensitivity. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Creativity
• Genius
• Sensitivity

“If we are mistaken, we are mistaken together; which, incidentally, for us is equivalent to being right.”

Original: Si nos equivocamos, nos equivocamos los dos; lo cual, dicho sea de paso, para nosotros equivale á acertar. — Shared uncertainty becomes a form of companionship and discovery rather than failure. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Companionship
• Uncertainty
• Understanding

“Dissection may reveal the mechanism of the human body; but the phenomena of the soul, the secret of life, how can they be studied in a corpse?”

Original: La disección podrá revelar el mecanismo del cuerpo humano; pero los fenómenos del alma, el secreto de la vida, ¿cómo se estudian en un cadáver? — Bécquer challenges purely analytical approaches to art and the human soul. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Art
• Interpretation
• Mystery

“The one who feels seizes an idea, clothes it in a form, casts it into the realm of knowledge, and passes on.”

Original: El que la siente se apodera de una idea, la envuelve en una forma, la arroja en el estadio del saber y pasa. — The poet transforms an inward perception into artistic form without claiming to explain it completely. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Creation
• Expression
• Poetry

“The poetry is you, I told you, because poetry is feeling, and feeling is woman.”

Original: La poesía eres tú, te he dicho, porque la poesía es el sentimiento, y el sentimiento es la mujer. — Bécquer identifies poetry with feeling rather than with literary technique or formal rules. · Letter I, Cartas literarias a una mujer (Spanish)

• Feeling
• Love
• Poetry

“The memory a book leaves behind is more important than the book itself.”

Original: El recuerdo que deja un libro es más importante que el libro mismo. — The lasting emotional and intellectual impression of reading matters more than the physical book. · Prose remark, commonly attributed (Spanish)

• Books
• Memory
• Reading

“The solitude is the realm of consciousness.”

Original: La soledad es el imperio de la conciencia. — Solitude is presented as the inward territory in which consciousness becomes fully sovereign. · El caudillo de las manos rojas (Spanish)

• Consciousness
• Reflection
• Solitude

“The one who has imagination, how easily they can draw a world out of nothing.”

Original: El que tiene imaginación, con qué facilidad saca de la nada un mundo. — A compact celebration of imagination as a creative power capable of transforming emptiness into an entire world. · Prose remark, commonly attributed (Spanish)

• Creation
• Creativity
• Imagination

“Love is a mystery. Everything about it is inexplicable; it is all illogical, all vagueness and absurdity.”

Original: El amor es un misterio. Todo en él son fenómenos a cual más inexplicable; todo en él es ilógico, todo en él es vaguedad y absurdo. — Love resists the tidy explanations that can be applied to other human passions. · Cartas literarias a una mujer, Carta I (Spanish)

• Emotion
• Love
• Mystery

“I would rather have one true friend than a thousand acquaintances.”

Expressing a preference for genuine companionship over social popularity · Conversation, as reported in biographical reminiscence

• Connection
• Friendship
• Preference

“I don't believe that any woman can write poetry unless she has suffered.”

Linking poetic expression with personal suffering and emotional experience · Conversation, as reported in biographical reminiscence

• Experience
• Poetry
• Suffering

“I have always felt that if I could only get away from Cincinnati, I could do something.”

Reflecting her ambition and frustration with the limitations of her circumstances · Biographical reminiscence of Phoebe Cary

• Ambition
• Opportunity
• Work

“For thirty years I have gone straight to her bedside as soon as I arose in the morning, and wherever she is, I am sure she wants me now.”

Expressing a lifetime of habitual devotion to her sister and faith in their continuing bond · Letter to Mrs. Croly, 1873

• Devotion
• Family
• Loss

“I have lain down, and it seems, because Alice is not there, there is no reason why I should get up.”

Revealing how completely her daily life had been bound up with her sister’s presence · Letter to Mrs. Croly, 1873

• Companionship
• Grief
• Loss

“Alice, you have no idea what a rakish appearance you present. I’ll get you the hand-glass that you may see how you wear your cap.”

A glimpse of Phoebe’s humour and affection during her sister’s final illness · A Memorial of Alice and Phoebe Cary, 1873

• Affection
• Humour
• Laughter

“Alice, when she was here, always absorbed me, and she absorbed me still; I feel her constantly drawing me.”

Describing the continuing presence she felt after her sister’s death · A Memorial of Alice and Phoebe Cary, 1873

• Absence
• Attachment
• Grief

“It seems to me that a cord stretches from Alice’s heart to mine; nothing can hurt her that does not hurt me.”

Expressing the extraordinary emotional bond between the two sisters · A Memorial of Alice and Phoebe Cary, 1873

• Affection
• Connection
• Family

“Do you think that this will not exist for ever and ever: two prayers struck together into one prayer, two loves into one love, two forces into one force.”

Original: Czyś ty nigdy nie marzyła, droga moja, o spiorunowaniu dwóch modlitw w jedną modlitwę, dwojga miłości w jedną miłość, dwóch sił w jedną siłę? Czy ty myślisz, że tego na wieki wieków nie będzie? — He imagines human and spiritual unity as a force created by joining separate lives and purposes. · Letter to his mother, 15 October 1845 (Polish)

• Hope
• Love
• Unity

“I want to transform reason into wisdom, awaken a person, and give him an impulse towards the great purposes of life.”

Original: z chęcią, aby mu serce zapełnić, rozum zamienić w mądrość, wskrzesić go niby i dać mu pęd ku wielkim celom żywota — He distinguishes mere intellectual understanding from wisdom put into purposeful action. · Letter to his mother, 15 October 1845 (Polish)

• Growth
• Purpose
• Wisdom

“I approach each person as though he were a brother, wishing to fill his heart, turn his reason into wisdom, awaken him and give him an impulse towards life's great purposes.”

Original: Do każdego zbliżam się niby do brata, z chęcią, aby mu serce zapełnić, rozum zamienić w mądrość, wskrzesić go niby i dać mu pęd ku wielkim celom żywota. — His ideal of human influence is intimate, generous and directed towards spiritual growth. · Letter to his mother, 15 October 1845 (Polish)

• Compassion
• Growth
• Wisdom

“I have worked for these five years as perhaps no man has worked before. The fruits of this work are not in books, but in living hearts and spirits.”

Original: Przez te lat pięć pracowałem tak, jak może jeszcze żaden człowiek nie pracował. Skutki tej pracy nie w księgach są, ale w żywych sercach i duchach, w które je wrzuciłem i posiałem. — He measures creative achievement by its effect on people rather than by books or reputation. · Letter to Wojciech Stattler, 25 December 1848 (Polish)

• Achievement
• Influence
• Work

“Whoever comes first with such poetry, I shall make a pedestal of all my books for him and lie beneath his feet myself, so that he may stand higher.”

Original: Kto pierwszy z taką poezyą przyjdzie, ja mu z wszystkich książek moich postument zrobię, i sam się położę pod nogami, aby stał wyżej i prawdę zawsze oglądał z wysoka. — He values poetry that serves truth so highly that personal literary fame becomes secondary. · Letter to his mother, February 1845 (Polish)

• Humility
• Poetry
• Truth

“Pray to the Most High God day and night for poetry for living people.”

Original: Proś Boga najwyższego w dzień i w nocy o poezyę dla żywych ludzi. — Poetry is imagined as something spiritually useful to living people rather than merely an ornament. · Letter to his mother, February 1845 (Polish)

• Inspiration
• Poetry
• Purpose