“To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.”
Reply to questionnaire, "The Cost of Letters" in Horizon (September 1946).
General sources
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Robert Graves117
English poet and novelist 1895–1985Related quotes
“…conditioning usually reinforces instinct rather than overrides it.”
Matt Ridley (1958) economist
Source: The Red Queen (1993), Ch. 6
“I would rather be a swineherd, understood by the swine, than a poet misunderstood by men.”
Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism
Frances Wright (1795–1852) American activist
Letter XXVIII (April 1820) Views of Society and Manners in America (1821)
Context: The Virginians are said to pride themselves upon the peculiar tenderness with which they visit the sceptre of authority on their African vassals. As all those acquainted with the character of the Virginia planters, whether American or foreigners, appear to concur in bearing testimony of their humanity, it is probable that they are entitled to the praise which they claim. But in their position, justice should be held superior to humanity; to break the chains would be more generous than to gild them; and whether we consider the interests of the master or the slave, decidedly more useful. To give liberty to a slave before he understands its value is, perhaps, rather to impose a penalty than to bestow a blessing; but it is not clear to me that the southern planters are duly exerting themselves to prepare the way for that change in the condition of their black populations which they profess to think not only desirable but inevitable.
Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN
On being a lawyer, as quoted by Claire Birge in The Stevensons : A Biography of an American Family (1997) by Jean H. Baker, p. 262
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist
Source: On Death and Dying (1969), Ch. 2
Stephen R. Covey book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
Camille Paglia (1947) American writer
Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders : Academe in the Hour of the Wolf, p. 237