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Wallace Stevens Quotes

98 Inspirational Quotes By Wallace Stevens, The Author Of The Collected Poems

Famous As: Modernist poet

Born On: 1879

Died On: 1955

Born In: Reading, Pennsylvania, United States

Died At Age: 75

Wallace Stevens was a lawyer by training and trade, but he went on to become one of the most influential American modernist poets. He ini-tially studied at Harvard and later on was employed as a journalist, be-fore going to New York Law School. Stevens may have been better known for his modernist poems but he worked full time for an insurance company located in the state of Connecticut and worked on his poetry in his spare time. He eventually ended up as the vice president of the insurance company. Some of his most famous poems are ‘The Snow Man’, ‘The Idea of Order at Key West’, ‘Anectode of the Jar’ and ‘The Emperor of the Ice Cream Jar’ among others. His book of Collected Poems won him the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1955 and remains a hugely popular book among poetry enthusiasts. According to those close to him, he supported the Republican Party but was not an active member of any political outfit. Stevens was a highly intelligent man, with a great sense of humour and hence it is not a surprise that he has left behind a treas-ure trove of quotes. Here are some of the very best.

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Writers

Poets

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.
Wallace Stevens

Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.

Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.
Nature Like
Wallace Stevens

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendos
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendos The blackbird whistling Or just after.
I
Wallace Stevens

Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers.

Death is the mother of beauty. Only the perishable can be beautiful, which is why we are unmoved by artificial flowers.
Death Beautiful
Wallace Stevens

The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.
Wallace Stevens

Throw away the light, the definitions, and say what you see in the dark.

Throw away the light, the definitions, and say what you see in the dark.
You
Wallace Stevens

Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor.

Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor.
Wallace Stevens

The exceeding brightness of this early sun
Makes me conceive how dark I have become.

The exceeding brightness of this early sun Makes me conceive how dark I have become.
Me I
Wallace Stevens

It is not everyday that the world arranges itself into a poem.

It is not everyday that the world arranges itself into a poem.
Wallace Stevens

We live in an old chaos of the sun.
Wallace Stevens

The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly.

The final belief is to believe in a fiction, which you know to be a fiction, there being nothing else. The exquisite truth is to know that it is a fiction and that you believe in it willingly.
You Believe Belief
Wallace Stevens

The reader became the book; and summer night
Was like the conscious being of the book.

The reader became the book; and summer night Was like the conscious being of the book.
Like
Wallace Stevens

The imperfect is our paradise.
Wallace Stevens

A poet looks at the world as a man looks at a woman.

A poet looks at the world as a man looks at a woman.
Wallace Stevens

The mind can never be satisfied.
Never
Wallace Stevens

One must read poetry with one's nerves.
Wallace Stevens

I am what is around me.
Me I
Wallace Stevens

For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds /
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds / Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Wallace Stevens

The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.

The way through the world Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it.
Wallace Stevens

I certainly do not exist from nine to six, when I am at the office.

I certainly do not exist from nine to six, when I am at the office.
I
Wallace Stevens

In the presence of extraordinary actuality, consciousness takes the place of imagination.

In the presence of extraordinary actuality, consciousness takes the place of imagination.
Wallace Stevens

The poem must resist the intelligence
Almost successfully.

The poem must resist the intelligence Almost successfully.
Wallace Stevens

Poetry is an abstraction bloodied.
Wallace Stevens

I was myself the compass of that sea:
I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw
Or heard or felt came not but from myself;
And there I found myself more truly and more strange.

I was myself the compass of that sea: I was the world in which I walked, and what I saw Or heard or felt came not but from myself; And there I found myself more truly and more strange.
I
Wallace Stevens

Out of this same light, out of the central mind,
We make a dwelling in the evening air,
In which being there together is enough.

Out of this same light, out of the central mind, We make a dwelling in the evening air, In which being there together is enough.
Together
Wallace Stevens