Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.
About Mark Van Doren
Mark Van Dorenwas an American poet, writer and critic. He was a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, John Berryman, Whittaker Chambers, and Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.
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More quotes from Mark Van Doren
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)
Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)
Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)
Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)
When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love, though we must love it because we have no other, and to fail to love it is not to exist at all.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)
The job of the poet is to render the world – to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)
To fail to love is not to exist at all.
American poet and literary critic (1894-1972)