We ought not to extract pernicious honey from poison blossoms of misrepresentation and mendacious half-truth, to pamper the course appetite of bigotry and self-love.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward; it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Poetry enriches life by encouraging an appreciation for beauty and goodness in everything around us.
In this quote, Samuel Taylor Coleridge reflects on the transformative power of poetry in his life. He views poetry not just as a literary form, but as an enriching experience that fosters a desire to seek out beauty and goodness in the world. This perspective suggests that engaging with art can lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of life itself.
Themes
PoetryBeautyArtAppreciationGoodness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at a literary festival to inspire budding poets.
More from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
All quotes →Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
Often do the spirits stride on before the event; and in today already walks tomorrow.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
Mr. Lyell's system of geology is just half the truth, and no more. He affirms a great deal that is true, and he denies a great deal which is equally true; which is the general characteristic of all systems not embracing the whole truth.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
To believe and to understand are not diverse things, but the same things in different periods of growth.
Samuel Taylor ColeridgeRead
Similar quotes
Poetry and progress are like two ambitious men who hate one another with an instinctive hatred, and when they meet upon the same road, one of them has to give place.
Charles BaudelaireRead
I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker, and I wait for the day when the modifier can be a moot point.
Kathryn BigelowRead
Dress is at all times a frivolous distinction, and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim.
Jane AustenRead
I don't like to read contemporary fiction while writing - I need a sense of isolation, a kind of silence, and I don't want a jumble of other people's voices or visions getting in my way. Nineteenth-century voices don't create static in that silence.
Cynthia OzickRead
The stuff I'm passionate about is what I write; it isn't multi-million-dollar franchise movies.
Taika WaititiRead
What I want, when I write a poem, is no more than this: that it be preserved in some published form so that, in principle, someone, somewhere, will be able to find it and read it. That is all I need, as a poet, and that is the beauty, the luxury of my position. My lyric is mine and remains mine. Nobody can ruin it.
James FentonRead