Marianne Moore

"We do not find ourselves; we create ourselves through our choices."

"Patience is not the absence of action; it is action with understanding."

"The purpose of life is to become more fully human."

"There is no greater tragedy than a life unlived."

"We are shaped by what we love and what we resist."

"The mind is a garden that requires constant cultivation."

"There is no such thing as a small act of kindness."

"The mind is an enchanting thing."

"Humility is as good as a shield against annoyance."

"There is a quality of legend about freaks."

"Ecstasy affords the occasion and expediency determines the form."

"Omissions are not accidents."

"Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads in them."

"If you wish to achieve what you are not now achieving, you must leave off doing what you are now doing."

"The cure for loneliness is solitude."

"There never was a war that was cold."

"Feeling is most precious when it becomes precious to us."

"One should emphasize the fact that the piano is a percussion instrument."

"Our work is meaningful when it serves something beyond ourselves."

"Nor is it valid to discriminate against the blues."

"Silence is also speech."

"To have time is to have choice."

"Liberty is not just a word but a living, breathing force."

"Courage is often the quiet acceptance of what must be."

"The sea is a sovereign mistress and demands respect."

"One must make internal adjustments."

"Integrity is everything unless it is nothing."

"Knowledge without kindness is empty achievement."

"A writer's concern should be authentic experience."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas."