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There have been many most excellent poets that never versified, and now swarm many versifiers that need never answer to the name of poets.

— Philip Sidney An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

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Poetry

More quotes by Philip Sidney

A fair woman shall not only command without authority but persuade without speaking.

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

High-erected thoughts seated in the heart of courtesy.

The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia (1580)

And thou my minde aspire to higher things;
Grow rich in that which never taketh rust.

With a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney corner.

An Apology of Poetry, or The Defence of Poesy (1595)

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There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature (1836)

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.

T. S. Eliot Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919)

Poetry, unlike oratory, should not aim at clarity...but be dense with meaning, 'something to be chewed and digested'.

George Chapman Ovid's Banquet of Sense (1595)

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

Michael Faraday

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