Emotions and Feelings

Don’t get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one.

Problems are to the mind what exercise is to the muscles, they toughen and make strong. Problems make one better able to cope with life.

Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.

Nothing is so at odds with prayer as vanity.

One cares so little for the style in which one’s praises are written.

One cares so little for the style in which one’s praises are written.

People can be induced to swallow anything, provided it is sufficiently seasoned with praise.

The applause of a single human being is of a great consequence.

The applause of a single human being is of a great consequence.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise— although the philosophers generally call it “recognition.”

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise— although the philosophers generally call it “recognition.”

Nothing so soon the drooping Spirits can raise, As Praises from the Men, whom all Men Praise.

Nothing so soon the drooping Spirits can raise, As Praises from the Men, whom all Men Praise.

the one that inspires all his deeds and designs, he would say, “I want to be praised.”

the one that inspires all his deeds and designs, he would say, “I want to be praised.”

Power takes as ingratitude the writhing of its victims.

Power is pleasure; and pleasure sweetens pain.

Possessions delude the human heart into believing that they provide security and a worry-free existence, but in truth they are the very cause of worry.

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.

If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words.

because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

There is room in the halls of pleasure For a large and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow isles of pain.