“The pessimist writes over the gates of life what the poet has inscribed on the portals of hell—”Abandon hope, ye who enter here.”

— John Lancaster Spalding

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 189

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John Lancaster Spalding 202

Catholic bishop 1840–1916

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“He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry — it is he who is a poet.”

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