To regard the imagination as metaphysics is to think of it as part of life, and to think of it as part of life is to realize the extent of artifice. We live in the mind. Wallace Stevens More Quotes by Wallace Stevens More Quotes From Wallace Stevens An old argument with me is that the true religious force in the world is not the church, but the world itself: the mysterious callings of Nature and our responses. Wallace Stevens church religious religion The imagination loses vitality as it ceases to adhere to what is real. Wallace Stevens vitality real imagination One ought not to hoard culture. It should be adapted and infused into society as a leaven. Liberality of culture does not mean illiberality of its benefits. Wallace Stevens doe mean culture We say Wallace Stevens girl change violet It is time that beats in the breast and it is time Wallace Stevens proud mind time In poetry, you must love the words, the ideas and the images and rhythms with all your capacity to love anything at all. Wallace Stevens writing love ideas It is necessary to any originality to have the courage to be an amateur. Wallace Stevens funny-basketball originality God is in me or else is not at all. Wallace Stevens spirituality spiritual The imagination is man's power over nature. Wallace Stevens creative imagination men The figures of the past go cloaked. Wallace Stevens rain snow past The night Wallace Stevens men night world in the presence of extraordinary actuality, consciousness takes the place of imagination. Wallace Stevens extraordinary consciousness imagination The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly. Wallace Stevens finals believe fiction It is poverty's speech that seeks us out the most. Wallace Stevens rome poverty speech Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers. Wallace Stevens flower mother beautiful The imperfect is our paradise. Wallace Stevens imperfect paradise I still feel the need of some imperishable bliss. Wallace Stevens bliss feels needs The house was quiet and the world was calm. The reader became the book. Wallace Stevens house book world The imagination is the liberty of the mind It is intrpeid and eager and the extreme of its achievement lies in abstraction. Wallace Stevens achievement imagination lying Conceptions are artificial. Perceptions are essential. Wallace Stevens artificial essentials perception