If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.
Muriel Rukeyser
The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness.
A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.
Salman Rushdie
It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.
John Ruskin
To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world... to see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.
The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in... →
Bertrand Russell
Poetry can't cure cancer, but it can save your life until you die.
Maurice Saatchi
He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life.
George Sand
Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
Carl Sandburg