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Art matters not merely because it is the most magnificent ornament and the most nearly unfailing occupation of our lives, but because it is life itself.

— Randall Jarrell Poetry and the Age (1953)

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More quotes by Randall Jarrell

One Whitman is miracle enough, and when he comes again it will be the end of the world.

Poetry and the Age (1953)

The people who live in a Golden Age usually go around complaining how yellow everything looks.

Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

Human life without some form of poetry is not human life but animal existence.

Poetry and the Age (1953)

The real war poets are always war poets, peace or any time.

Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

If we judge by wealth and power, our times are the best of times; if the times have made us willing to judge by wealth and power, they are the worst of times.

Kipling, Auden & Co: Essays and Reviews 1935-1964 (1980)

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

William James The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (1897)

Reason is Life's sole arbiter, the magic Laby'rinth's single clue:
Worlds lie above, beyond its ken; what crosses it can ne'er be true.

Richard Francis Burton The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)

It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

Cary Grant Love – That’s All Cary Grant Ever Thinks About (1964)

Attribution

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