Poet Philosopher Quotes

“Everybody we know surrounds himself with a fine house, fine books, conservatory, gardens, equipage, and all manner of toys, as screens to interpose between himself and his guest. Does it not seem as if man was of a very sly, elusive nature, and dreaded nothing so much as a full rencontre front to front with his fellow?”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays on Manners, Self-Reliance, Compensation, Nature, Friendship

“Were I to choose an auspicious image for the new millennium, I would choose that one: the sudden agile leap of the poet-philosopher who raises himself above the weight of the world, showing that with all his gravity he has the secret of lightness, and that what many con- sider to be the vitality of the times—noisy, aggressive, revving and roaring— belongs to the realm of death, like a cemetery for rusty cars.”
― Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium