John Ciardi quotes

John Ciardi was an American poet, translator, and etymologist renowned for his accessible poetry and translations of Dante’s "Divine Comedy." His work significantly influenced American poetry and the appreciation of classic literature. He was also a respected educator and a popular radio commentator on language. Here are 22 of his quotes:

The day will happen whether or not you get up.

John Ciardi

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.

John Ciardi

I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into myself.

John Ciardi

A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.

John Ciardi

Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.

John Ciardi

Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.

John Ciardi

Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.

John Ciardi

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.

John Ciardi

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

John Ciardi

The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow.

John Ciardi

Every game ever invented by mankind, is a way of making things hard for the fun of it!

John Ciardi

Poetry lies its way to the truth.

John Ciardi

There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.

John Ciardi

What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down.

John Ciardi

A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.

John Ciardi

Written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar.

John Ciardi

A dollar saved is a quarter earned.

John Ciardi

Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.

John Ciardi

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.

John Ciardi