
Letter (10 January 1936); as published in Letters of Wallace Stevens (1966) edited by Holly Stevens, (No. 339)
"Hamlet Borgianized", p. 156
The Progress of a Biographer (1949)
Letter (10 January 1936); as published in Letters of Wallace Stevens (1966) edited by Holly Stevens, (No. 339)
The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), Conclusion : Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy
Source: Less Than Nothing (2012), Chapter One (The Drink Before), Vacillating The Semblances
Context: The implicit lesson of Plato is not that everything is appearance, that it is not possible to draw a clear line of separation between appearance and reality (that would have meant the victory of Sophism), but that essence is "appearance as appearance,"that essence appears in contrast to appearance within appearance; that the distinction between appearance and essence has to be inscribed into appearance itself. Insofar as the gap between essence and appearance is inherent to appearance, in other words, infsofar as essence is nothing but appearance reflected into itself, appearance is appearance against the background of nothing - everything appears ultimately out of nothing.
“He will learn to observe carefully, and not to be deceived, as we sometimes are, by appearances.”
An Old Man's Thoughts on Many Things, Of Education I
Context: Could not a boy be taught the elements of astronomy at the sole cost of using his eyes and his brain; taught slowly, certainly, and not wearied with too much at once? Some would learn more than others; but all would learn something. This is real science, real knowledge, which will make a boy wiser, and probably better too. He will learn to observe carefully, and not to be deceived, as we sometimes are, by appearances.
“it is only courage on the path itself that makes the path appear”
“Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits”
Source: 1890s, The Principles of Psychology (1890), Ch. 9
Context: Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits … A 'river' or a 'stream' are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.
“No civilization, no matter how mighty it may appear to itself, is indestructible.”
Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011)
“I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.”
J'ai toujours vu que, pour réussir dans le monde, il fallait avoir l'air fou et être sage.
Pensées Diverses
“And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.”
The Creation, st. 7.
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)
'Introduction'
Essays and reviews, Glued to the Box (1983)