Quotations

Remarks poets made beyond their poems — letters, journals, conversation — gathered as a readable library. Browse by topic or author, or search the words themselves. Currently 8,473 active remarks.

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Topic: Life

Showing 24 of 219 · page 1 of 10

“There is one thing in this world that must never be forgotten. If you forget everything else and remember that, you need not worry; if you remember everything else and forget that, you have done nothing at all.”

Original: در عالم یک چیز است که آن فراموش کردنی نیست. اگر جمله چیزها را فراموش کنی و آن را فراموش نکنی باک نیست و اگر جمله را به جای آری و یاد داری و آن را فراموش کنی هیچ نکرده باشی. — Rumi frames human life as a single entrusted task, beside which every other achievement is empty. · Fihi Ma Fihi, Discourse 4 (Persian)

Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī

“Or do I merely see things differently because I lack this kind of bravado, and can imagine and wish for another task in life than to let a shell tear me to pieces.”

Original: Oder sehe ich nur die Dinge anders, weil mir diese Art der Bravour abgeht und ich mir schließlich noch eine andere Aufgabe im Leben denke und wünsche, als mich von einer Granate in Stücke reißen zu lassen. — A stark statement of his desire for a life and purpose beyond warfare · Letter to Thea Sternheim from the front, early October 1914 (German)

Ernst Stadler

“I call my verses only semi-poetry, and my realities, subject to the laws of ordinary mortal life, I dare call nothing more than possibility.”

Original: Yo no llamo a mis versos sino semi-poesía, y a mis realidades, que obedecen a la ley de vida de los simples mortales, no oso llamar otra cosa que posibilidad. — Characterising his work with modesty and an awareness of human limitation · Academy address, Semi-poesía y posibilidad, 1938 (Spanish)

Manuel Machado

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