Quotern

Quotern

For the past thirty years or so, much American poetry has been marked by an earnestness that rejects the comic. This has nothing to do with seriousness. The comic can be very serious. The trouble with the earnest is that it seeks to be commended. It seeks to be praised for its intention more than for what it is saying.

-- Stephen Dobyns

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It is the preservation of the species, not of individuals, which appears to be the design of Deity throughout the whole of nature.

-- Mary Wollstonecraft

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Education in accord with nature was thought to be the first step in insuring this more social society. It was plainly seen that economic and political limitations were ultimately dependent upon limitations of thought and feeling.

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I want a language that speaks the truth.

-- Studs Terkel

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If the same phrase in the same place created the right effect, I was perfectly prepared to use it every time. I wasn't worried that I wasn't improvising.

-- Alexis Korner

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Genius without religion is only a lamp on the outer gate of a palace; it may serve to cast a gleam of light on those that are without, while the inhabitant sits in darkness.

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May Light always surround you;Hope kindle and rebound you.May your Hurts turn to Healing;Your Heart embrace Feeling.May Wounds become Wisdom;Every Kindness a Prism.May Laughter infect you;Your Passion resurrect you.May Goodness inspire your Deepest Desires.Through all that you Reach For, May your arms Never Tire.

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To live is not to breathe but to act. It is to make use of our organs, our senses, our faculties, of all the parts of ourselves which give us the sentiment of our existence. The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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The beauty of this country and what people participate in is the competitive nature that we allow to exist and the fact is that we are better because we have great competitors.

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A kiss without a moustache, they said then, is like an egg without salt; I will add to it: and it is like Good without Evil.

-- Jean-Paul Sartre

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