Quotes by John Ciardi

“Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.”

“And the time sundials tellMay be minutes and hours. But it may just as wellBe seconds and sparkles, or seasons and flowers.No, I don't think of time as just minutes and hours.Time can be heartbeats...”

“Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.”

“I have one head that wants to be good,And one that wants to be bad.And always, as soon as I get up,One of my heads is sad.”

“Most Like an Arch This MarriageMost like an archan entrance which upholds and shores the stone-crush up the air like lace. Mass made idea, and idea held in place. A lock in time. Inside half-heaven...”

“He had his choice, and he liked the worst.”

“Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.”

“Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.”

“It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.”

“You don't have to suffer to be a poet adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. ”

“Poetry lies its way to the truth.”

“The day will happenwhether or not you get up”

“A savage is simply a human organism that has not received enough news from the human race.”

“(Conviction) is possible only in a world more primitive than ours can be perceived to be. A man can achieve a simply gnomic conviction only by ignoring the radical describers of his environment or...”

“A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.”

“There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.”

“Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.”

“Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.”

“Boys are the cash of war. Whoever said: we're not free spenders- doesn't know our like.”

“You have to fall in love with hanging around words.”