Reality is not what it is. It consists of the many realities which it can be made into. Wallace Stevens More Quotes by Wallace Stevens More Quotes From Wallace Stevens In European thought in general, as contrasted with American, vigor, life and originality have a kind of easy, professional utterance. American -- on the other hand, is expressed in an eager amateurish way. A European gives a sense of scope, of survey, of consideration. An American is strained, sensational. One is artistic gold; the other is bullion. Wallace Stevens goldgivinghands Poetry is poetry, and one's objective as a poet is to achieve poetry precisely as one's objective in music is to achieve music. Wallace Stevens achievemusic-ispoetry Fromage and coffee and cognac and no gods. Wallace Stevens cognaccoffee God is gracious to some very peculiar people. Wallace Stevens graciouspeculiarpeople Most poets who have little or nothing to say are concerned primarily with the way in which they say it ... if it is true that the style of a poem and the poem itself are one, ... it may be ... that the poets who have little or nothing to say are, or will be, the poets that matter. Wallace Stevens stylepoetryart Poetry is a satifying of the desire for resemblance. Wallace Stevens poetrydesireart Poetry is a finikin thing of air Wallace Stevens poetryairlong Soldier, there is a war between the mind Wallace Stevens moonnightwar You know that the nucleus of a time is not Wallace Stevens effortconfusionpoetry It is never the thing but the version of the thing: Wallace Stevens blockselftime Death is the mother of beauty, mystical, Wallace Stevens motherwaitingbeauty I placed a jar in Tennessee, Wallace Stevens tennesseenatureart They said, You have a blue guitar, you do not play things as they are. The man replied, Things as they are changed upon a blue guitar. Wallace Stevens Democritus plucked his eye out because he could not look at a woman without thinking of her as a woman. If he had read a few of our novels, he would have torn himself to pieces. Wallace Stevens To be young is all there is in the world. They talk so beautifully about work and having a family and a home (and I do, too, sometimes) --but it's all worry and head-aches and respectable poverty and forced gushing. Telling people how nice it is, when, in reality, you would give all of your last thirty years for one of your first thirty. Old people are tremendous frauds. Wallace Stevens You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus. Wallace Stevens I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections, Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling, Or just after. Wallace Stevens whichjustknowbeauty After the final no there comes a yes and on that yes the future of the world hangs. Wallace Stevens afteryesfutureworld In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature. Wallace Stevens communicationnatureimagination It can never be satisfied, the mind, never. Wallace Stevens neversatisfiedmind
