52+ John Ciardi Quotes On Creative, Witty And Insightful

John Ciardi was an American poet, translator, etymologist, and children's author. He was a professor of English at Rutgers University and a poetry editor for the Saturday Review. He was a prolific author of over 50 books, including poetry, translations, and works for children, and was the first American to win the International Boccaccio Prize for Poetry. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Ciardi on love, creative, witty.

Top 10 John Ciardi Quotes

1. The day will happen whether or not you get up.
2. Let our love be like an arch- two weaknesses leaning together to form one strength.
3. Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.
4. You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
5. The classroom should be an entrance into the world, not an escape from it.
6. Written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar.
7. 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.
8. The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
9. Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
10. 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 Short Quotes

• A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
• You have to fall in love with hanging around words.
• A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in the students.
• There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.
• Early to bed and early to rise probably indicates unskilled labor.
• A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.
• Boys are the cash of war. Whoever said: we're not free spenders- doesn't know our like.
• Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.
• The public library is the most dangerous place in town
• Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.

John Ciardi Quotes About Poet

You do not have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. — John Ciardi

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

The success of the poem is determined not by how much the poet felt in writing it, but by how much the reader feels in reading it. — John Ciardi

John Ciardi Famous Quotes And Sayings

If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate. — John Ciardi

Within a single scene, it seems to be unwise to have access to the inner reflections of more than one character. The reader generally needs a single character as the means of perception, as the character to whom the events are happening, as the character with whom he is to empathize in order to have the events of the writing happen to him. — John Ciardi

It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their conviction. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their convictions. — John Ciardi

A carbonated wine foisted upon Americans (who else would drink it?) by winery ad agencies as a way of getting rid of inferior champagne by mixing it with inferior burgundy. — John Ciardi

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

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves they have a better idea. — John Ciardi

Every game ever invented by mankind, is a way of making things hard for the fun of it! — John Ciardi

Men marry what they need. I marry you. — John Ciardi

Fermentation equals civilization. — John Ciardi

Poetry lies its way to the truth. — John Ciardi

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity. — John Ciardi

Spontaneous is what you get after the seventeenth draft. — John Ciardi

General rules have been legislated into being by past masters. — John Ciardi

The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow. — John Ciardi

At the next vacancy for God, if I am elected, I shall forgive last the delicately wounded who, having been slugged no harder than anyone else, never got up again, neither to fight back, nor to finger their jaws in painful admiration. — John Ciardi

A savage is simply a human organism that has not received enough news from the human race. — John Ciardi

Patience is the art of caring slowly. — John Ciardi

Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations. — John Ciardi

I have one head that wants to be good, And one that wants to be bad. And always, as soon as I get up, One of my heads is sad. — John Ciardi

A man is what he does with his attention and mine is not for sale. — John Ciardi

A university is a reading and discussion club. If students knew how to use the library, they wouldn't need the rest of the buildings. The faculty's job, in great part, is to teach students how to use a library in a living way. All a student should really need is access to the library and a place to sleep. — John Ciardi

One night I dreamed I was locked in my Father's watch With Ptolemy and twenty-one ruby stars Mounted on spheres and the Primum Mobile Coiled and gleaming to the end of space And the notched spheres eating each other's rinds To the last tooth of time, and the case closed. — John Ciardi

Conviction is possible only in a world more primitive than ours can be perceived to be. A man can achieve a simply gnomic conviction only by ignoring the radical describers of his environment, or by hating them, as convinced men have hated, say, Darwin and Freud, as agents of some devil. — John Ciardi

Who could believe an ant in theory? A giraffe in blueprint? Ten thousand doctors of what's possible Could reason half the jungle out of being. — John Ciardi

I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into myself. — John Ciardi

Boys are the cash of war. — John Ciardi

The thing about cats, as you may find, Is that no one knows what they have in mind. — John Ciardi

Fermentation and civilization are inseparable. — John Ciardi

To read a poem with no thought in mind but to paraphrase it into a single, simple and usually high-minded prose statement is the destruction of poetry. — John Ciardi

Life Lessons by John Ciardi

1. John Ciardi's work emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and the power of the individual to make meaningful choices. He encourages readers to think critically and to strive for a life of purpose and meaning.
2. Ciardi's works also emphasize the importance of kindness and understanding, and of recognizing the interconnectedness of all people. He encourages us to be compassionate and to recognize the common humanity that binds us all.
3. Finally, Ciardi's works emphasize the importance of being open to change and growth, and of learning from our mistakes. He encourages us to embrace the uncertainty of life and to be open to new experiences and perspectives.