Richard Wilbur

“Let us be moved by the things we cannot touch.”

“To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.”

“Poetry is a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right.”

“It is by the sweat of our brows that we earn our daily bread, and it is by the sweat of our brows that we find our salvation.”

“Love calls us to the things of this world.”

“The beautiful is not always the good, but the good is always the beautiful.”

“What is snatched from punishment is never possessed.”

“The strength of the genie comes from being in a bottle.”

“I feel that the universe is full of secrets. I’m not sure I’ll ever know them, but I’m not going to be lazy and not try to find out.”

“One does not use the verb 'to be' in successive sentences.”

“A finished poem is a box, a shape, for feelings and ideas.”

“The world's spiritual geniuses have been obsessed with the idea of detachment, of getting away from all the things of the world.”

“An unwatched pot boils immediately.”

“We are surrounded by the absurdly complex, the breathtakingly beautiful, and the profoundly mysterious.”

“The mind is a wild thing. It is a beast that must be tamed.”