Marianne Moore Quotes

Your thorns are the best part of you.

Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.

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

The heart that gives, gathers.

The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence.

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

Life is energy, and energy is creativity. And even when individuals pass on, the energy is retained in the work of art, locked in it and awaiting release if only someone will take the time and the care to unlock it.

Omissions are not accidents.

When you take my time, you take something I had meant to use.

Superior people never make long visits.

There never was a war that was not inward; I must fight till I have conquered in myself what causes war.

Egotism is usually subversive of sagacity.

The hands are the heart's messengers.

Poetry, that is to say the poetic, is a primal necessity.

One detects creative power by its capacity to conquer one's detachment.

Revision is its own reward.

Conscious writing can be the death of poetry.

We Call Them the Brave who likely were reluctant to be brave.

Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time.

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

In a poem the excitement has to maintain itself. I am governed by the pull of the sentence as the pull of a fabric is governed by gravity.

Excess is the common substitute for energy.

The enslaver is enslaved, the hater, harmed.

In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind.

Writing is an undertaking for the modest.