Poetry is always slightly mysterious, and you wonder what is your relationship to it.

Hope is not optimism, which expects things to turn out well, but something rooted in the conviction that there is good worth working for.

Believe that a further shore is reachable from here.

Even if the hopes you started out with are dashed, hope has to be maintained.

Anyone with gumption and a sharp mind will take the measure of two things: what's said and what's done.

I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.

If you have the words, there's always a chance that you'll find the way.

History says, Don’t hope On this side of the grave, But then, once in a lifetime The longed-for tidal wave Of justice can rise up, And hope and history rhyme

All I know is a door into the dark

I have begun to think of life as a series of ripples widening out from an original center.

Don't be surprised if I demur, for, be advised my passport's green.

It requires a strong constitution to withstand repeated attacks of prosperity.

Every man has his own destiny the only imperative is to follow it to accept it no matter where it leads him.

Surely every band wants to be a pivotal point in history.

You can't go feeding your hate on the past, it's not natural.

The person who prays more in public than in private reveals that he is less interested in God's approval than in human praise. Not piety but a reputation for piety is his concern.

That virtue we appreciate is as much ours as another s. We see so much only as we possess.

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself.

Despise pleasure; pleasure bought by pain in injurious.

I think we all want to be remembered for what we did.

Sweet music, and your secret heart. Both have the healing grace.