I omit the unusual, the hurricanes & earthquakes, and describe the common. This has the greatest charm and is the true theme of poetry.—Journal, 28 August 1851
If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets.—Walden
The matutine intellect of the poet, keeping in advance of the glare of philosophy, always dwells in this auroral atmosphere.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
In the last stage of civilization, Poetry, Religion and Philosophy will be one.—Journal, 17 December 1837
It is the imagination of poets which puts those brave speeches into the mouths of their heroes.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
It makes no odds into what seeming deserts the poet is born. Though all his neighbors pronounce it a Sahara, it will be a paradise to him; for the desert which we see is the result of the barrenness of our experience.—Journal, 6 May 1854
Most poems, like the fruits, are sweetest toward the blossom end.—Journal, 23 August 1853
Much of our poetry has the very best manners, but no character.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself. The most accurate analysis by the rarest wisdom is yet insufficient, and the poet will instantly prove it false by setting aside its requisitions.' It is indeed all that we do not know.—Journal, January 1840
No man is rich enough to keep a poet in his pay.—Journal, 20 March 1858
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