A woman may veil her face with a smile.
How noble is the sad heart who would sing a joyous song with joyous
hearts.
He who would understand a woman, or dissect genius, or solve the
mystery of silence is the very man who would wake from a beautiful
dream to sit at a breakfast table.
I would walk with all those who walk. I would not stand still to watch
the procession passing by.
You owe more than gold to him who serves you. Give him of your heart
or serve him.
Nay, we have not lived in vain. Have they not built towers of our
bones?
Let us not be particular and sectional. The poet's mind and the
scorpion's tail rise in glory from the same earth.
Every dragon gives birth to a St. George who slays it.
Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down
and turn them into paper that we may record our emptiness.
Should you care to write (and only the saints know why you should) you
must needs have knowledge and art and music -- the knowledge of the
music of words, the art of being artless, and the magic of loving your
readers.
They dip their pens in our hearts and think they are inspired.
Should a tree write its autobiography it would not be unlike the
history of a race.
If I were to choose between the power of writing a poem and the
ecstasy of a poem unwritten, I would choose the ecstasy. It is better
poetry.
But you and all my neighbors agree that I always choose badly.
Poetry is not an opinion expressed. It is a song that rises from a
bleeding wound or a smiling mouth.
Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a
knowledge of their timelessness.
A POET IS a dethroned king sitting among the ashes of his palace
trying to fashion an image out of the ashes.
Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the
dictionary.
In vain shall a poet seek the mother of the songs of his heart.
Once I said to a poet, "We shall not know your worth until you
die."
And he answered saying, "Yes, death is always the revealer. And
if indeed you would know my worth it is that I have more in my heart
than upon my tongue, and more in my desire than in my hand."
If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will
have an audience.
Poetry is wisdom that enchants the heart.
Wisdom is poetry that sings in the mind.
If we could enchant man's heart and at the same time sing in his mind,
Then in truth he would live in the shadow of God.
Inspiration will always sing; inspiration will never explain.
We often sing lullabies to our children that we ourselves may sleep.
All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the
mind.
Thinking is always the stumbling stone to poetry.
A great singer is he who sings our silences.
How can you sing if your mouth be filled with food?
How shall your hand be raised in blessing if it is filled with gold?
They say the nightingale pierces his bosom with a thorn when he sings
his love song.
So do we all. How else should we sing?
Genius is but a robin's song at the beginning of a slow spring.
Even the most winged spirit cannot escape physical necessity.
A madman is not less a musician than you or myself; only the
instrument on which he plays is a little out of tune.
The song that lies silent in the heart of a mother sings upon the lips
of her child.
No longing remains unfulfilled.
I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter
seems to lie between us.
Your other self is always sorry for you. But your other self grows on
sorrow; so all is well.
There is no struggle of soul and body save in the minds of those whose
souls are asleep and whose bodies are out of tune.
When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things,
even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.
We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.
Sow a seed and the earth will yield you a flower. Dream your dream to
the sky and it will bring you your beloved.
The devil died the very day you were born.
Now you do not have to go through hell to meet an angel.
Many a woman borrows a man's heart; very few could possess it.
If you would possess you must not claim.
When a man's hand touches the hand of a woman they both touch the
heart of eternity.
Love is the veil between lover and lover.
Every man loves two women; the one is the creation of his imagination,
and the other is not yet born.
Men who do not forgive women their little faults will never enjoy
their great virtues.
Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn
a slavery.
Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.
Love and doubt have never been on speaking terms.
Love is a word of light, written by a hand of light, upon a page of
light.
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
If you do not understand your friend under all conditions you will
never understand him.
Your most radiant garment is of the other person's weaving;
You most savory meal is that which you eat at the other person's
table;
Your most comfortable bed is in the other person's house.
Now tell me, how can you separate yourself from the other person?
Your mind and my heart will never agree until your mind ceases to live
in numbers and my heart in the mist.
We shall never understand one another until we reduce the language to
seven words.
HOW SHALL MY heart be unsealed unless it be broken?
Only great sorrow or great joy can reveal your truth.
If you would be revealed you must either dance naked in the sun, or
carry your cross.
Should nature heed what we say of contentment no river would seek the
sea, and no winter would turn to Spring. Should she heed all we say of
thrift, how many of us would be breathing this air?
You see but your shadow when you turn your back to the sun.
You are free before the sun of the day, and free before the stars of
the night;
And you are free when there is no sun and no moon and no star.
You are even free when you close your eyes upon all there is.
But you are a slave to him whom you love because you love him,
And a slave to him who loves you because he loves you.
We are all beggars at the gate of the temple, and each one of us
receives his share of the bounty of the King when he enters the
temple, and when he goes out.
But we are all jealous of one another, which is another way of
belittling the King.
You cannot consume beyond your appetite. The other half of the loaf
belongs to the other person, and there should remain a little bread
for the chance guest.
If it were not for your guests all houses would be graves.
Said a gracious wolf to a simple sheep, "Will you not honor our
house with a visit?"
And the sheep answered, "We would have been honored to visit your
house if it were not in your stomach."
I stopped my guest on
the threshold and said, "Nay, wipe not your feet as you enter,
but as you go out."
Generosity is not in giving me that which I need more than you do, but
it is in giving me that which you need more than I do.
You are indeed charitable when you give, and while giving, turn your
face away so that you may not see the shyness of the receiver.
The difference between the richest man and the poorest is but a day of
hunger and an hour of thirst.
We often borrow from our tomorrows to pay our debts to our yesterdays.
I too am visited by angels and devils, but I get rid of them.
When it is an angel I pray an old prayer, and he is bored;
When it is a devil I commit an old sin, and he passes me by.
After all this is not a bad prison; but I do not like this wall
between my cell and the next prisoner's cell;
Yet I assure you that I do not wish to reproach the warder not the
Builder of the prison.
Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing
but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.
Trickery succeeds sometimes, but it always commits suicide.
You are truly a forgiver when you forgive murderers who never spill
blood, thieves who never steal, and liars who utter no falsehood.
He who can put his finger upon that which divides good from evil is he
who can touch the very hem of the garment of God.
If your heart is a volcano how shall you expect flowers to bloom in
your hands?
A strange form of self-indulgence! There are times when I would be
wronged and cheated, that I may laugh at the expense of those who
think I do not know I am being wronged and cheated.
What shall I say of him who is the pursuer playing the part of the
pursued?
Let him who wipes his soiled hands with your garment take your
garment. He may need it again; surely you would not.
It is a pity that money-changers cannot be good gardeners.
Please do not whitewash your inherent faults with your acquired
virtues. I would have the faults; they are like mine own.
How often have I attributed to myself crimes I have never committed,
so that the other person may feel comfortable in my presence.
Even the masks of life are masks of deeper mystery.
You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself.
Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?
The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.
Only an idiot and a genius break man-made laws; and they are the
nearest to the heart of God.
It is only when you are pursued that you become swift.
I have no enemies, O God, but if I am to have an enemy
Let his strength be equal to mine,
That truth alone may be the victor.
You will be quite friendly with your enemy when you both die.
Perhaps a man may commit suicide in self-defense.
Long ago there lived a Man who was crucified for being too loving and
too lovable.
And strange to relate I met him thrice yesterday.
The first time He was asking a policeman not to take a prostitute to
prison; the second time He was drinking wine with an outcast; and the
third time He was having a fist-fight with a promoter inside a church.
If all they say of good and evil were true, then my life is but one
long crime.
Pity is but half justice.
THE ONLY ONE who has been unjust to me is the one to whose brother I
have been unjust.
When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is
escaping from a narrower prison."
And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he
sought escape from something still more unbeautiful."
Oftentimes I have hated in self-defense; but if I were stronger I
would not have used such a weapon.
How stupid is he who would patch the hatred in his eyes with the smile
of his lips.
Only those beneath me can envy or hate me.
I have never been envied nor hated; I am above no one.
Only those above me can praise or belittle me.
I have never been praised nor belittled; I am below no one.
Your saying to me, "I do not understand you," is praise
beyond my worth, and an insult you do not deserve.
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