John Ciardi
20 quotes
Biography
John Anthony Ciardi was an American poet, translator, and etymologist. While primarily known as a poet and translator of Dante's Divine Comedy, he also wrote several volumes of children's poetry, pursued etymology, contributed to the Saturday Review as a columnist and long-time poetry editor, directed the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont, and recorded commentaries for National Public Radio.
"Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope."
"Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea."
"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."
"It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions."
"Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen."
"You don't have to suffer to be a poet adolescence is enough suffering for anyone."
"Poetry lies its way to the truth."
"It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions."
"What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down."
"The day will happenwhether or not you get up"
"A savage is simply a human organism that has not received enough news from the human race."
"Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity."
"Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope."
"(Conviction) is possible only in a world more primitive than ours can be perceived to be. A man can achieve a simply gnomic conviction only by ignoring the radical describers of his environment or by hating them as convinced men have hated say Darwin and Freud as agents of some devil."
"There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation."
"Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone."
"Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves they have a better idea."
"Boys are the cash of war. Whoever said: we're not free spenders- doesn't know our like."
"You have to fall in love with hanging around words."
"If a man means his writing seriously he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate."