“A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket: let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing.”
22 September 1830.
Table Talk (1821–1834)
Context: A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket: let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection; and trust more to your imagination than to your memory.
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge 220
English poet, literary critic and philosopher 1772–1834Related quotes
Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections
“I try not to borrow, first you borrow then you beg.”
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Introduction to New Dimensions 1, edited by Robert Silverberg
“Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbours. ”
"Ten Ways to Avoid Lending Your Wheelbarrow to Anybody", from Adrian Mitchell's Greatest Hits (1991).
“The borrowing requirement was 'terrifying.'”
Source: Remarks to Barbara Castle (9 April 1975), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), p. 359
Context: He just had to cut back public expenditure. The Social Contract wasn't working. Inflation was getting out of control.