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I think books are chiefly responsible for my dogged self determined efforts to write; books & verisimilitude; I like to describe things.

— Marianne Moore

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More quotes by Marianne Moore

You are not male nor female, but a plan
deep-set within the heart of man.

A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself.

Beauty is everlasting
and dust is for a time.

The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

Maine should be pleased that its animal
is not a waverer, and rather
than fight, lets the primed quill fall.
Shallow oppressor, intruder,
insister, you have found a resister.

The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

Staff and effigy of the animal
which by shedding its skin
is a sign of renewal —
the symbol of medicine.

The Poems of Marianne Moore (2003)

All Marianne Moore quotes →

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Marianne Moore (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.