Quotes by Marianne Moore

You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability ratherthanan asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates formwe are justified in supposingthat you must have brains. For you, a symbol of theunit, stiff and sharp,conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority andliking for everythingself-dependent, anything anambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, toattempt through sheerreserve, to confuse presumptions resulting fromobservation, is idle. You cannot make usthink you a delightful happen-so. But rose, if you arebrilliant, itis not because your petals are the without-which-nothingof pre-eminence. Would you not, minusthorns, be a what-is-this, a mereperculiarity? They are not proof against a worm, theelements, or mildew;but what about the predatory hand? What is brilliancewithout co-ordination? Guarding theinfinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience tothe remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-membered too violently,your thorns are the best part of you.

The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence.

Yule—Yul log for the Christmas-fire tale-spinner—of fairy tales that can come true: Yul Brynner.

I am hard to disgust, but a pretentious poet can do it

Beauty is everlasting And dust is for a time.

As contagion of sickness makes sickness contagion of trust can make trust.

Youre not free until youve been made captive by supreme belief.

The enslaver is enslaved the hater harmed.

When one is frank ones very presence is a compliment.

Im troubled. Im dissatisfied. Im Irish.

Poetry is all nouns and verbs.

Superior people never make long visits.

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

Your thorns are the best part of you.

If technique is of no interest to a writer, I doubt that the writer is an artist.

Impatience is the mark of independence, not of bondage.

As contagion of sickness makes sickness, contagion of trust can make trust.

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