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| | World |  | This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.— T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 |  | Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.— Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet |  | The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.— Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955, American poet | | The world has room to make a bear feel free;
The universe seems cramped to you and me.— Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet |  | Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.— Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet |  | A word is dead when it is said, some say.
I say it just begins to live that day.— Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Death |  | For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.— Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer | | There is one who remembers the way to your door: Life you may evade, but Death you shall not. — T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 | | Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee
And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me.— Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet |  | All human things are subject to decay,
And, when fate summons, monarchs must obey.— John Dryden, 1631-1700, English poet |  | Death is sweet when we sleep in our homeland. — Andreas Kalvos, 1792-1869, Greek poet |  | When you go to bed, don't leave bread or milk
on the table: it attracts the dead.— Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Czech-German poet |  | I think I can remember being dead. Many times, in winter, I approached Zeus. Tell me, I would ask him, how can I endure the earth? — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | Dying is a wild night and a new road. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Suicide |  | Razors pain you, Rivers are damp, Acids stain you, And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful, Nooses give, Gas smells awful.
You might as well live.— Dorothy Parker, 1893-1967, American writer, poet, satirist, critic | | | |
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| | God |  | I talk to God but the sky is empty. — Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet & writer | | They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet |  | What is God? And what is not God? And what is in between? — Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 |  | Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt
– marvellous error! –
That it was God I had here inside my heart.— Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright | | | |
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| | Ending | | This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.— T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 | | Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.— Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet |  | O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.— Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American poet |  | In the end, there is no end. — Robert Lowell, 1917-1977, American poet | | | |
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| | Light | | God and Nature met in light. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet |  | But few are those who tread the sunlit path;
Only the pure in soul can walk in light.— Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher | | There's a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons,
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.— Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Soul |  | I gave her my heart but she wanted my soul. — Bob Dylan, 1941-, American singer [Nobel 2016] |  | The eyes of my soul are always open, always awake! — Dionysios Solomos, 1797-1857, Greek poet | | I must get my soul back from you; I am killing my flesh without it. — Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet & writer | | The soul is silent.
If it speaks at all
it speaks in dreams.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 |  | And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted
Nevermore!— Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, American writer | | | |
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| | Illusions |  | We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.— W.H. Auden, 1907-1973, British poet | | | |
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| | Nostalgia |  | There is no greater sorrow
Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery.— Dante, 1265-1321, Italian poet | | To feel nostalgia for you place
being in your place
nothing is more bitter.— Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 |  | Yes, Paradise was not a nostalgia.
Nor, much more, a reward.
It was a right.— Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | | |
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| | Forgetting | | At first I saw you everywhere.
Now only in certain things, at longer intervals.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | Deleting a piece from the past is like deleting a corresponding piece from the future. — Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 | | What was difficult was the travel, which, on arrival, is forgotten. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | | |
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| | Beauty |  | Beauty is truth, truth beauty,-that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.— John Keats, 1795-1821, English poet | | Beauty is not the cause of something, it is what it is. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | If the moon smiled, she would resemble you.
You leave the same impression
Of something beautiful, but annihilating.— Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet & writer | | | |
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| | Heart | | I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart.
I am, I am, I am.— Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet & writer | | That's why I'm not to be trusted.
Because a wound to the heart is also a wound to the mind.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | But a Book is only the Heart’s Portrait- every Page a Pulse. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | The Heart wants what it wants
or else it does not care.— Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Wisdom | | Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?— T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 |  | Don’t gain the world and lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver and gold. — Bob Marley, 1945-1981, Jamaican singer |  | Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop
Than when we soar.— William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, English poet | | The deepest words
of the wise man teach us
the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows
or the sound of the water when it is flowing.— Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright |  | To wisely live your life, you don't need to know much
Just remember two main rules for the beginning:
You better starve, than eat whatever
And better be alone, than with whoever.— Omar Khayyam, 1048-1131, Persia poet & polymath | | | |
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| | Bravery |  | And even more honor is due to them
when they foresee (as many do foresee)
that in the end Ephialtis will make his appearance,
that the Medes will break through after all. — Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ Thermopylae | | Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.— Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;— Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet |  | We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world. — Helen Keller, 1880-1968, American writer | | | |
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| | Self-knowledge |  | Doing as others told me, I was blind.
Coming when others called me, I was lost.
Then I left everyone, myself as well.
Then I found everyone, myself as well.— Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet | | | |
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| | Ineffectiveness | | Yet we’re sure to fail. Up there,
high on the walls, the dirge has already begun.— Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ Trojans | | [He] tried to start an intrigue,
do something, come up with a plan;
but he failed pitifully and was reduced to nothing.— Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ Orophernis | | What have you done with the garden that was entrusted to you? — Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright | | | |
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| | Inaction | | We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.— W.H. Auden, 1907-1973, British poet | | | |
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| | Love |  | I met Love
I have lived you now, Life!— Kostis Palamas, 1859-1943, Greek poet | | I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street.— W.H. Auden, 1907-1973, British poet |  | Love seeketh only self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another's loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite.— William Blake, 1757-1827, English poet & painter | | One love, one heart,
Let's get together and feel alright.— Bob Marley, 1945-1981, Jamaican singer | | Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.— Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | Who is wise in love, love most, say least. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | Everything I love is born unceasingly
Everything I love is always at the beginning.— Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | Even before you touched me,
I belonged to you;
all you had to do was look at me.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.— W.H. Auden, 1907-1973, British poet | | Till it has loved, no man or woman can become itself. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Kiss | | Kiss me, and you will see how important I am. — Sylvia Plath, 1932-1963, American poet & writer | | You are always new, the last of your kisses was ever the sweetest. — John Keats, 1795-1821, English poet | | As the kiss knows you, no one knows you. — Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | You have a taste of storm on your lips
–But where have you been?— Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | You were light before my eyes.
Love before Love
And when the kiss took you,
Woman.— Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | | |
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| | Seeing | | To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower.
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.— William Blake, 1757-1827, English poet & painter | | Things seen are mightier than things heard. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?— Bob Dylan, 1941-, American singer [Nobel 2016] |  | If you can’t see it, it’s like I don’t have it. — Yannis Ritsos, 1909-1990, Greek poet | | Even before you touched me,
I belonged to you;
all you had to do was look at me.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | | |
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| | Solitude |  | Let's exchange body and loneliness.
I shall give you despair to stop being an animal,
you will give me strength to stop being a wreck.— Dinos Christianopoulos, 1931-2020, Greek poet | | With no consideration, no pity, no shame,
they have built walls around me, thick and high.— Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ Walls |  | I have no ambitions nor desires
To be a poet is not my ambition,
It's simply my way of being alone.— Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer |  | Who hears music feels his solitude
Peopled at once.— Robert Browning, 1812-1889, British poet | | What I like is my loneliness.
No one comes close.— Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | I am too alone in the world, and yet not alone enough
to make every hour holy.— Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, Czech-German poet | | I myself am hell;
nobody's here.— Robert Lowell, 1917-1977, American poet | | Of all abstract nouns
does it matter to exclude loneliness?— Dinos Christianopoulos, 1931-2020, Greek poet | | | |
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| | Freedom | | Not pleasure, not glory, not power: freedom, only freedom. — Fernando Pessoa, 1888-1935, Portuguese poet & writer | | Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand,
Only when infinity weds the finite's thought,
Can man be free from himself and live with God.— Sri Aurobindo, 1872-1950, Indian nationalist, yogi & philosopher | | | |
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| | Cities | | You won’t find a new country, won’t find another shore.
This city will always pursue you. You will walk
the same streets, grow old in the same neighborhoods,
will turn gray in these same houses.
You will always end up in this city.— Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ The city | | | |
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| | Revelations | | Doing as others told me, I was blind.
Coming when others called me, I was lost.
Then I left everyone, myself as well.
Then I found everyone, myself as well.— Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet | | | |
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| | Poetry | | Throw away the light, the definitions, and say what you see in the dark. — Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955, American poet | | The poem must resist the intelligence
Almost successfully.— Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955, American poet | | A poem is a meteor. — Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955, American poet | | Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. — Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet | | This is how it always is when I finish a poem.
A great silence overcomes me
and I wonder why I ever thought to use language.— Rumi, 1207-1273, Persian mystic & poet | | Many verses are like doors,
locked doors in deserted houses.— Yannis Ritsos, 1909-1990, Greek poet | | | |
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| | Dreams | | Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?— Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849, American writer |  | I had a dream, which was not all a dream. — Lord Byron, 1788-1824, British poet | | The soul is silent.
If it speaks at all
it speaks in dreams.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | Between living and dreaming there is a third thing.
Guess what.— Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright (waking up) | | Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt
– marvellous error! –
That it was God I had here inside my heart.— Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright |  | I have spread my dreams under your feet.
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.— William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish poet, Nobel 1923 | | | |
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| | Accomplishment | | O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done!
The ship has weathered every wrack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.— Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American poet | | To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | Always, always you pass through fire to reach the shining. — Odysseas Elytis, 1911-1996, Greek poet, Nobel 1979 | | | |
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| | Searching | | I follow up the quest despite of day and night and death and hell. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.— Wallace Stevens, 1879-1955, American poet | | Come friends, it's not too late to seek a newer world. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet |  | I keep six honest serving-men: (They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When and How and Why and Who.— Rudyard Kipling, 1865-1936, English writer, Nobel 1907 | | I am out with lanterns, looking for myself. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Readiness | | We should be ready
Every hour is our hour.— Yannis Ritsos, 1909-1990, Greek poet | | The eyes of my soul are always open, always awake! — Dionysios Solomos, 1797-1857, Greek poet | | Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger.
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.— T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965, British poet, Nobel 1948 | | The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Acknowledgment | | You long for something else, ache for other things:
praise from the Demos and the Sophists,
that hard-won, that priceless acclaim—
the Agora, the Theatre, the Crowns of Laurel.— Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ The Satrapy | | | |
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| | Loss | | Don’t gain the world and lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver and gold. — Bob Marley, 1945-1981, Jamaican singer | | This could but have happened once,
And we missed it, lost it forever.— Robert Browning, 1812-1889, British poet | | Birth, not death, is the hard loss. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | | |
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| | Suffering | | Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straight-forward pathway had been lost.— Dante, 1265-1321, Italian poet | | So much pain so much life
they went to the abyss
for an empty shirt, for a Helen.— Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 | | To feel nostalgia for you place
being in your place
nothing is more bitter.— Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 | | From the beginning of time, in childhood, I thought that pain meant I was not loved. It meant I loved. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | That's why I'm not to be trusted.
Because a wound to the heart is also a wound to the mind.— Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | I measure every Grief I meet
With narrow, probing, Eyes;
I wonder if It weighs like Mine,
Or has an Easier size.— Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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| | Degradation | | Don’t hope for things elsewhere:
there is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,
you’ve destroyed it everywhere else in the world.— Constantine Kavafy, 1868-1933, Greek poet ‐ The city | | | |
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| | Road | | Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.— Robert Frost, 1874-1963, American poet | | Travelers, there is no path,
paths are made by walking.— Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright | | As you go, you open a path, and looking back you see a path that you will never walk again. — Antonio Machado, 1875-1939, Spanish poet & playwright | | | |
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| | Travel | | O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting.— Walt Whitman, 1819-1892, American poet | | Come friends, it's not too late to seek a newer world. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Life to the lees. — Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892, English poet | | Wherever I travel, Greece hurts me. — Giorgos Seferis, 1900-1971, Greek poet, Nobel 1963 | | What was difficult was the travel, which, on arrival, is forgotten. — Louise Glück, 1943-2023, American poet, Nobel 2020 | | To shut your eyes is to travel. — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away… — Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, American poet | | | |
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