Wallace Stevens

"The highest order of thinking is the thinking of the poet."

"Words are the only things that matter."

"The weather is also a philosopher."

"We can never know too little about the past."

"The essence of religion is not based upon emotion."

"The intellect is the instrument of survival."

"Poetry is the establishment of a new reality."

"The mind creates a continuum of unreality."

"To be awake is to be alive."

"The central poem is the poem of the mind in the act of finding."

"Life is not ideas about life, but life itself."

"The purpose of the poet is not to create beauty, but truth."

"We perceive things not as they are but as we are."

"The thing seen becomes the thing unseen."

"One must be free to wonder freely."

"The greatest work is done in the silence of the mind."

"To speak clearly is to remain within the obvious."

"The world about us is not the world but a description of it."

"The truth is that we do not know until we have said it."

"Poetry must be like a walk, not a destination."

"The life of the mind is the only life that is real."

"We must be content to live without absolute truth."

"The artist gives shape to the invisible."

"All the gods are within us, and without us."

"To see clearly one must see without prejudice."

"The greatest thing is to be able to think."

"The mind must listen to itself."

"We are the music while the music lasts."