Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Wallace StevensRead
It is the unknown that excites the ardor of scholars, who, in the known alone, would shrivel up with boredom.
Interpretation
The pursuit of knowledge thrives on the mysteries and challenges of the unknown rather than just existing knowledge.
This quote by Wallace Stevens emphasizes that true intellectual excitement and passion come from exploring the unknown. Scholars are driven by curiosity and the desire to uncover new truths, while a stagnant reliance on what is already known can lead to dullness and lack of inspiration. It highlights the importance of embracing uncertainty as a catalyst for learning and growth.
In practice
This quote could be used in a lecture to inspire students to engage with challenging material.
Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
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.
Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
Remarkable work is always not on the list, because if it was, it would be commonplace, not remarkable.
Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.
Meditation is a means to discover all the glories of the ocean of mind
Now the Apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says, "Knowledge inflates: but love edifies." The only correct inerpretation of this saying is that knowledge is valuable when charity informs it. Without charity, knowledge inflates; that is, it exalts man to an arrogance which is nothing but a kind of windy emptiness.
We're our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
We cannot master everything, taste everything, understand everything, drain every experience to its last dregs. But if we have the courage to let almost everything else go, we will probably be able to retain the thing necessary for us-whatever it may be. If we are too eager to have everything, we will almost certainly miss even the one thing we need
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