Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
A violent order is disorder; and a great disorder is an order. These two things are one.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Order and disorder are interconnected concepts that can represent the same underlying truth.
This quote by Wallace Stevens explores the paradoxical relationship between order and disorder. It suggests that what we perceive as violent or chaotic can actually embody a hidden form of order, while what we define as orderly may mask underlying disorder. This notion encourages a deeper reflection on the complexity and duality of existence, inviting us to recognize that opposites often coexist and inform each other.
Themes
OrderDisorderPhilosophyParadoxChaos
In practice
Example use cases
In a philosophical debate about the nature of reality.
More from Wallace Stevens
All quotes →Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
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After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
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Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
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LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
Wallace StevensRead
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Wallace StevensRead
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