Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.

For the entire Desiderata go to Inspirational Poems page

Whether of not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Go Placidly, Amid the noise and Haste & Remember what peace there may be in silence.

May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world knows me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as will keep me friendly with myself.

Let me not follow in the clamor of the world, but walk calmly in my path.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

Fish cannot swim out of water.

The planet you inhabit is a single plane of infinite dimensions, stretched like a guitar string, and standing before you like a concubine waiting for your command.

People seem always actually to know, with a degree of pain that has required the comfort of fairy tales, that when you are dressed in any particular way at all, you are revealed rather than hidden.

I prefer the hardest terms of peace to the most just war.

Man can learn nothing unless he proceeds from the known to the unknown.

The word 'archive' seems so reassuring, but I have a lot ofconcern over the longevity of documentary materials.

You do well to have visions of a better life than of every day, but it is the life of every day from which the elements of a better life must come.

You have to remember that in addition to running a literary agency, I am also an ebook publisher.

I quit my band in New York City in 1969 and I got really angry at them. I got angry at one of my guitar players and I dove over the drum set and we got into a fight.

Love can't be a metaphor anymore. If you try to make literature out of it, it doesn't work.