Marianne Moore

"Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads."

"As contagion of sickness makes sickness, contagion of trust can make trust."

"Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage."

"If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist."

"Your thorns are the best part of you."

"The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease."

"Superior people never make long visits."

"Poetry is all nouns and verbs."

"I'm troubled. I'm dissatisfied. I'm Irish."

"When one is frank one's very presence is a compliment."

"The enslaver is enslaved the hater harmed."

"You're not free until you've been made captive by supreme belief."

"As contagion of sickness makes sickness contagion of trust can make trust."

"Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time."

"The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence."

"You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability ratherthanan asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates formwe are justified in supposingthat you must have brains. For you, a symbol of theunit, stiff and sharp,conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority andliking for everythingself-dependent, anything anambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, toattempt through sheerreserve, to confuse presumptions resulting fromobservation, is idle. You cannot make usthink you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you arebrilliant, itis not because your petals are the without-which-nothingof pre-eminence. Would you not, minusthorns, be a what-is-this, a mereperculiarity? They are not proof against a worm, theelements, or mildew;but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliancewithout co-ordination? Guarding theinfinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience tothe remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-membered too violently,your thorns are the best part of you."

"Any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others."