Diane Ackerman Quotes
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Poetry reminds us of the truths about life and human nature that we knew all along, but forgot somehow because they weren't yet in memorable language.
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Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret.
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The biggest threat to the religious experience may well come from organized religion itself.
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It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
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Success produces success, just as money produces money.
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History is an agreed-upon fiction.
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Because poets feel what we're afraid to feel, venture where we're reluctant to go, we learn from their journeys without taking the same dramatic risks.
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Which is crueler, an old man's lost memories of a life lived, or a young man's lost memories of the life he meant to live?
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When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call "white" is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion.
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Things that live by night live outside the realm of 'normal' time and so suggest living outside the realm of good and evil, since we have moralistic feelings about time. Chauvinistic about our human need to wake by day and sleep by night, we come to associate night dwellers with people up to no good at a time when they have the jump on the rest of us and are defying nature, defying their circadian rhythms.
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One can live at a low flame. Most people do. For some, life is an exercise in moderation (best china saved for special occasions), but given something like death, what does it matter if one looks foolish now and then, or tries too hard, or cares too deeply?
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As fleeting emotions stalk it, a face can leak fear or the guilt of a forming lie.
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Of all the errands life seems to be running, of all the mysteries that enchant us, love is my favorite.
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Wonder is a bulky emotion. When you let it fill your heart and mind, there isn't room for anxiety, distress or anything else.
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Libraries change lives. They are the soul of a people.
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On gardens: I think they're sanctuaries for the mind and spirit. ... It's easy to feel wonder-struck in a garden, especially if you cultivate delight.
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A poem records emotions and moods that lie beyond normal language, that can only be patched together and hinted at metaphorically.
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Flight is nothing but an attitude in motion.
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Above all, we ask the poet to teach us a way of seeing.
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We ogle plants and animals up close on television, the Internet and in the movies. We may not worship the animals we see, but we still regard them as necessary physical and spiritual companions. Technological nature can't completely satisfy that yearning.
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One can live at a low flame. Most people do. For some, life is an exercise in moderation (best china saved for special occasions), but given something like death, what does it matter if one looks foolish now and then, or tries too hard, or cares too
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There are well-dressed foolish ideas just as there are well-dressed fools.
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Who would drink from a cup when they can drink from the source?