John Keats

"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard, are sweeter"

"Nor do we merely feel these essences for one short hour no, even as these trees that whisper round a temple become soon dear as the temples self, so does the moon, the passion posey, glories infinite, Haunt us till they become a cheering light unto our souls and bound to us so fast, that wheather there be shine, or gloom o'er cast, They always must be with us, or we die."

"Now a soft kiss - Aye, by that kiss, I vow an endless bliss."

"Think of my Pleasure in Solitude, in comparison of my commerce with the world - there I am a child - there they do not know me not even my most intimate acquaintance - I give into their feelings as though I were refraining from irritating a little child - Some think me middling, others silly, other foolish - every one thinks he sees my weak side against my will; when in thruth it is with my will - I am content to be thought all this because I have in my own breast so graet a resource. This is one great reason why they like me so; because they can all show to advantage in a room, and eclipese from a certain tact one who is reckoned to be a good Poet - I hope I am not here playing tricks 'to make the angels weep': I think not: for I have not the least contempt for my species; and though it may sound paradoxical: my greatest elevations of Soul leave me every time more humbled - Enough of this - though in your Love for me you will not think it enough."

"Touch has a memory. O say, love, say,What can I do to kill it and be free?"

"Touch has a memory."

"Besides, a long poem is a test of invention, which I take to be the Polar star of Poetry, as Fancy is the sails - and Imagination the rudder."

"My imagination is a monastery, and I am its monk"

"“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard, are sweeter”"

"I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top."

"Nothing ever becomes real 'til it is experienced."

"Scenery is fine -but human nature is finer"

"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mindabout nothing -- to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts."

"I have good reason to be content,for thank God I can read andperhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths."

"But this is human life: the war, the deeds, The disappointment, the anxiety, Imagination’s struggles, far and nigh,All human; bearing in themselves this good, That they are still the air, the subtle food, To make us feel existence. -Keats, Endymion This is the ‘goal’ of the soul path – to feel existence; not to overcome life’s struggles and anxieties, but to know life first hand, to exist fully in context. (Thomas Moore, Care of the Soul, p.260)"

"Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know."

"The same that oft-times hath charm'd magic casements, opening on the foam of perilous seas, in fairy lands forlorn."

"No one can usurp the heights... But those to whom the miseries of the world Are misery, and will not let them rest."

"Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art--Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart,Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite."

"Pensive they sit, and roll their languid eyes."