The modern essay has regained a good deal of its literary status in our time, much to the credit of Joseph Epstein.

Haul up the flag, you mourners, Not half-mast but all the way; The funeral is done and disbanded; The devil's had the final say.

Poetry is innocent, not wise. It does not learn from experience, because each poetic experience is unique.

But with exquisite breathing you smile, with satisfaction of love, And I touch you again as you tick in the silence and settle in sleep.

To make the child in your own image is a capital crime, for your image is not worth repeating. The child knows this and you know it. Consequently you hate each other.

The proverbist knows nothing of the two sides of a question. He knows only the roundness of answers.

Already old, the question Who shall die? Becomes unspoken Who is innocent?

The body, what is it, Father, but a sign To love the force that grows us, to give back What in Thy palm is senselessness and mud?

Poetry is not a way of saying things; it's a way of seeing things.

How something important happens is the business of historians and newspapers, the effect it has is the business of philosophers and writers and especially poets.

Poets of course are even more unpredictable than other writers, overwhelmed as they are by the moment they inhabit and finding it difficult to connect yesterday with tomorrow.

Just when I need Him He is my all Answering when upon Him I call Tenderly watching lest I should fall.

Failures aren't failures if you learn something from them.

I meet people from different walks of life that I can have relationships with.

I think that red polka red dress is just iconic.

I think I love you, Cal." -Abra I'm not good." -Cal Because you're not good." -Abra

It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive.

I don't know about that. I'm not a very analytical person. I have various impulses. I've often quoted Walt Whitman's phrase "I contain multitudes." I understand that.

We need a revival in the country,” Paul said. “We need another Great Awakening with tent revivals of thousands of people saying, 'reform or see what's going to happen if we don't reform.'

Every child grows; everything depends on the teacher.

There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.