“He tried to weigh his soul to see if it was a poet's soul.”

— James Joyce, book Dubliners

"A Little Cloud"
Dubliners (1914)
Context: He tried to weigh his soul to see if it was a poet's soul. Melancholy was the dominant note of his temperament, he thought, but it was a melancholy tempered by recurrences of faith and resignation and simple joy. If he could give expression to it in a book of poems perhaps men would listen.

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James Joyce191

Irish novelist and poet 1882–1941

Max Michelson (1880–1953) American poet

Review of 'Cadences' by F. S. Flint , Poetry ,vol 8, no 5 1916

“He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”

Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles

Source: The Song of Achilles

“Terrible is the day when each sees his soul naked, stripped of all veil; that dear soul which he cannot change or discard, and which is so irreparably his.”

George Moore (novelist) (1852–1933) Irish novelist, short-story writer, poet, art critic, memoirist and dramatist

Source: Confessions of a Young Man http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12278/12278-h/12278-h.htm (1886), Ch. 1.

“He identifies with the mountains and the streams, he sees something of his own soul in the plants and the animals and the birds of the field.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

The Manual of the Warrior of Light (1997)
Context: Every Warrior of the Light has suffered for the most trivial of reasons. Every Warrior of the Light has, at least once, believed he was not a Warrior of the Light.
Every Warrior of the Light has failed in his spiritual duties.
Every Warrior of the Light has said "yes" when he wanted to say "no."
Every Warrior of the Light has hurt someone he loved.
That is why he is a Warrior of the Light, because he has been through all this and yet has never lost hope of being better than he is.
Each stone, each bend cries welcome to him. He identifies with the mountains and the streams, he sees something of his own soul in the plants and the animals and the birds of the field.
Then, accepting the help of God and of God's signs, he allows his personal legend to guide him toward the tasks that life has reserved for him.
On some nights, he has nowhere to sleep, on others he suffers from insomnia. "That's just how it is," thinks the warrior. "I was the one who chose to walk this path."
In these words lies all his power: He chose the path along which he is walking and so has no complaints.

“The killer of souls does not kill a hundred souls. He kills his own soul a hundred times.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

El matador de almas no mata cien almas; mata una alma sola, cien veces.
Voces (1943)