Marianne Moore

"I went as I came, and I left as I found."

"No one may have any other notion of what you ought to be than the notion you have of it yourself."

"Feeling is not everything; it is also how we understand."

"We are not given instruction to become wiser; we are compelled to it by circumstance."

"There is a kind of resilience that comes only with age."

"To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to become."

"We are each responsible for what we leave behind."

"Beauty is not something that can be added or subtracted; it is what remains."

"The greatest thing is the perfection of one's own nature."

"We do not own anything; we are merely stewards of what we have been given."

"Art is the effort to render the matter of existence intelligible."

"There is nothing so important as understanding what you do not understand."

"The purpose of art is not decoration; it is communication."

"One cannot accomplish anything of importance alone."

"The mind cannot create what it has not conceived."

"Every moment is a choice to become who we wish to be."

"Precision is not the enemy of poetry; it is its foundation."

"We cannot separate what we think from what we feel."

"The work of art is a gift to the future."

"What matters is not what we have but what we do with what we have."

"The heart knows what the mind has not yet grasped."

"There is no such thing as accuracy without care."

"To be brave is not to be fearless; it is to act in spite of fear."

"The world is not made by those who dream; it is made by those who act."

"Nothing is solved by anger; everything is solved by understanding."

"The capacity for wonder never diminishes with age."

"We inherit not just genes but a responsibility to the future."

"The true test of character is how we behave when no one is watching."

"There is a rhythm to life that we must learn to follow."

"The greatest discoveries come from observing the ordinary."