The chances are that, in the course of his lifetime, the major poet will write more bad poems than the minor, simply because major poets write a lot.

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

Water is the soul of the Earth.

We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.

We would rather be ruined than changed. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and let our illusions die.

Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained.

Herds of reindeer move across Miles and miles of golden moss

All sins tend to be addictive, and the terminal point of addiction is damnation.

'Healing,' Papa would tell me, 'is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature.'

Few people take an interest in Iceland, but in those few the interest is passionate.

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

I am the greatest obstacle to my greatest dreams.

Never go tapping into the lives of others like you know them and their story! Their story is not yours, tell yours, for that is all you know.

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

The power of language, it seems to me, is the only kind of power a writer is entitled to.

Art class was my thing, but not any other class.

I once heard the survivors of a colony of ants that had been partially obliterated by a cow's foot seriously debating the intention of the gods towards their civilization.

Once bitten, you seldom lose the political bug.

It's amazing how large the things are that it's possible to overlook.

I'm not going to play politics on the floor of the House of Commons.

There is not the least flower but seems to hold up its head, and to look pleasantly, in the secret sense of the goodness of its Heavenly Maker.