The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
John Ciardi
English
Dramatist
About the author
The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Opinion
You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Suffering
#Adolescence
Written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
A dollar saved is a quarter earned.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Nothing
#Wrong
#Moderation
The day will happen whether or not you get up.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Will
#Day
The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Right
#American
#Constitution
#Fool
The classroom should be an entrance into the world, not an escape from it.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#World
#Classroom
Poetry lies its way to the truth.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Truth
#Poetry
#Lies
Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Character
#Nothing
#Man
Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Love
#Old
#Word
#Dependence
#Excitement
It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Men
#Courage
#Praise
Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Will
#Intelligence
#Genius
Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Money
Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Time
#Hope
#Nothing
#Open
#Father
Every game ever invented by mankind, is a way of making things hard for the fun of it!
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Fun
#Mankind
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in the students.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Students
#College
#Interest
#University
A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Hope
#Idea
#Question
What has any poet to trust more than the feel of the thing? Theory concerns him only until he picks up his pen, and it begins to concern him again as soon as he lays it down.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Pen
#Trust
#Theory
#Concern
Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
John Ciardi,
English
Dramatist
#Art
#Idea
#Girls