“I am the most misunderstood and misrepresented of men. Misrepresented because misunderstood.”
Isaac Parker (1838–1896) American politician
September 1, 1896; reported in Alton Pryor, The Lawmen (2006), p. 103.
“I would rather be a swineherd, understood by the swine, than a poet misunderstood by men.”
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Sören Kierkegaard309
Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism 1813–1855Related quotes
“The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.”
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) American anarchist writer and feminist
Sex Slavery (1890)
Context: O height and depth of purity, which fears so much that the children will not know who their fathers are, because, forsooth, they must rely upon their mother's word instead of the hired certification of some priest of the Church, or the Law! I wonder if the children would be improved to know what their fathers have done. I would rather, much rather, not know who my father was than know he had been a tyrant to my mother. I would rather, much rather, be illegitimate according to the statutes of men, than illegitimate according to the unchanging law of Nature.
“To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.”
Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist
Reply to questionnaire, "The Cost of Letters" in Horizon (September 1946).
General sources
“I find it impossible to think of "favorite" poets. I would rather list the ones I cannot stand.”
Billy Collins (1941) American poet
Interview with Kritya: In the Name of Poetry
“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.”
Cato the Elder (-234–-149 BC) politician, writer and economist (0234-0149)
Attributed to Cato in Plutarch, Parallel Lives 19:4 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0013%3Achapter%3D19. <br class="br">Original Greek: ‘μᾶλλον γὰρ,’ ἔφη, ‘βούλομαι ζητεῖσθαι, διὰ τί μου ἀνδριὰς οὐ κεῖται ἢ διὰ τί κεῖται’
Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Bol'shevistskoe rukovodstvo. Perepiska 1912-1927, [Bolshevik Leadership, Correspondence 1912-1927], p. 90
Stalin's speeches, writings and authorised interviews
