John Ciardi

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

“The day will happen whether or not you get up.”

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

“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.”

“A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.”

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

“The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyway.”

“The poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times.”

“Ferociously sane, this is what the poet is, and what he is for.”

“The difference between the poet and the mathematician is that the poet is trying to get his head into the heavens while the mathematician is trying to get the heavens into his head.”

“A man is what he does with his attention.”

“When the smell of bread drifts from the kitchen, that is a sign of happiness.”

“The artist is the man who makes life more interesting than it is.”

“Patience is a way of counting.”

“To the musician, surrender is the greatest triumph.”