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Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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No man was ever yet a great poet, without at the same time being a profound philosopher.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Silence does not always mark wisdom.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us. But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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But I do not doubt that it is beneficial sometimes to contemplate in the mind, as in a picture, the image of a grander and better world; for if the mind grows used to the trivia of daily life, it may dwindle too much and decline altogether into worthless thoughts.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie: And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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What if you slept And what if In your sleep You dreamed And what if In your dream You went to heaven And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower And what if When you awoke You had that flower in you hand Ah, what then?Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Poetry: the best words in the best order.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Sir, I admit your general rule, That every poet is a fool, But you yourself may serve to show it, That every fool is not a poet.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns: And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Ah! well a-day! what evil looks Had I from old and young! Instead of the cross, the Albatross About my neck was hung.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Then all the charm Is broken--all that phantom-world so fair Vanishes, and a thousand circlets spread, And each mis-shape the other.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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To be loved is all I need, And whom I love, I love indeed.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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A savage place! as holy and enchanted As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted By woman wailing for her demon-lover!Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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An orphan's curse would drag to hell A spirit from on high; But oh! more horrible than that Is the curse in a dead man's eye! Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse, And yet I could not die.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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But yester-night I prayed aloud In anguish and in agony, Up-starting from the fiendish crowd Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me: A lurid light, a trampling throng, Sense of intolerable wrong, And whom I scorned, those only strong! Thirst of revenge, the powerless will Still baffled, and yet burning still! Desire with loathing strangely mixed On wild or hateful objects fixed. Fantastic passions! maddening brawl! And shame and terror over all! Deeds to be hid which were not hid, Which all confused I could not know Whether I suffered, or I did: For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe, My own or others still the same Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad could be; And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea! All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody Sun, at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the Moon. Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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For I was reared in the great city, pent with cloisters dim, and saw naught lovely but the sky and stars. But thou, my babe! Shalt wander like a breeze By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags Of ancient mountains, and beneath the clouds, Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores And mountain crags: so shall thou see and hear The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible Of that eternal language, which thy GodUtters, who from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and al things in himself Great universal teacher! He shall mold Thy spirit and by giving , make it ask.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Hence, viper thoughts, that coil around my mind, Reality's dark dream! I turn from you, and listen to the wind.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Swans sing before they die– 't were no bad thing Should certain persons die before they sing.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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IIA grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,    A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,    Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,      In word, or sigh, or tear – O Lady! in this wan and heartless mood, To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd,    All this long eve, so balmy and serene, Have I been gazing on the western sky,    And its peculiar tint of yellow green: And still I gaze – and with how blank an eye! And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars, That give away their motion to the stars; Those stars, that glide behind them or between, Now sparkling, now bedimmed, but always seen: Yon crescent Moon as fixed as if it grew In its own cloudless, starless lake of blue; I see them all so excellently fair, I see, not feel how beautiful they are! I I I     My genial spirits fail;     And what can these avail To lift the smothering weight from off my breast?     It were a vain endeavour,      Though I should gaze for ever On that green light that lingers in the west: I may not hope from outward forms to win The passion and the life, whose fountains are within.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faithSamuel Taylor Coleridge
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Readers may be divided into four classes: I. Sponges, who absorb all they read, and return it nearly in the same state, only a little dirtied. II. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing, and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. III. Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. IV. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Every other science presupposes intelligence as already existing and complete: the philosopher contemplates it in its growth, and as it were represents its history to the mind from its birth to its maturity.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The one red leaf, the last of its clan, That dances as often as dance it can, Hanging so light, and hanging so high, On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Where true Love burns Desire is Love's pure flame; It is the reflex of our earthly frame, That takes its meaning from the nobler part, And but translates the language of the heart.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and there plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awake, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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On Pilgrim's Progress: “I could not have believed beforehand that Calvinism could be painted in such exquisitely delightful colors.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The reader should be carried forward, not merely or chiefly by the mechanical impulse of curiosity, or by a restless desire to arrive at the final solution; but by the pleasurable activity of mind excited by the attractions of the journey itself.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear, A drowsy, stifled, unimpassioned grief, Which finds no natural outlet or relief, In word, or sigh, or tear.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The act of praying is the very highest energy of which the human mind is capable; praying, that is, with the total concentration of the faculties. The great mass of worldly men and of learned men are absolutely incapable of prayer.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awoke - Aye! and what then?Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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A man’s desire is for the woman, but the woman’s desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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As a man without forethought scarcely deserves the name of a man, so forethought without reflection is but a metaphorical phrase for the instinct of a beast.- (1772-1834)Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Men, I still think, ought to be weighed, not counted. Their worth ought to be the final estimate of their value.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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There are four kinds of readers. The first is like the hourglass; and their reading being as the sand, it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second is like the sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. A third is like a jelly bag, allowing all that is pure to pass away, and retaining only the refuse and dregs. And the fourth is like the slaves in the diamond mines of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, retain only pure gems.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Our own heart, and not other men's opinions, forms our true honor.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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In poems, equally as in philosophic disquisitions, genius produces the strongest impressions of novelty while it rescues the most admitted truths from the impotence caused by the very circumstance of their universal admission.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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He was, as every truly great poet has ever been, a good man; but finding it impossible to realize his own aspirations, either in religion or politics, or society, he gave up his heart to the living spirit and light within him, and avenged himself on the world by enriching it with this record of his own transcendental ideal.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs Upon the slimy sea.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Praises of the unworthy are felt by ardent minds as robberies of the deserving.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Advice is like snow the softer it falls the longer it dwells upon and the deeper it sinks into the mind.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship which illumine only the track it has passed.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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What begins in fear usually ends in folly.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Sympathy constitutes friendship but in love there is a sort of antipathy or opposing passion. Each strives to be the other and both together make up one whole.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions-the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile a kind look a heart-felt compliment and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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What comes from the heart goes to the heart.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Only the wise possess ideas the greater part of mankind are possessed by them.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Facts are not truths they are not conclusions they are not even premisses but in the nature and parts of premisses.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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As long as there are readers to be delighted with calumny there will be found reviewers to calumniate.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile a kind look a heartfelt compliment and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole its body brevity and wit its soul.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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So lonely 'twas that God himself scarce seemed there to be.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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An ear for music is very different from a taste for music. I have no ear whatever I could not sing an air to save my life but I have the intensest delight in music and can detect good from bad.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing did certain persons die before they sing.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Fear gives sudden instincts of skill.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry that is prose - words in their best order poetry - the best words in their best order.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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He prayeth well who loveth well Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best who loveth best All things both great and small For the dear God who loveth us He made and loveth all.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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No man does anything from a single motive.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The wise only possess ideas the greater part of mankind are possessed by them.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole Its body brevity and wit its soul.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Language is the armoury of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale - my dreams become the substances of my life.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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People of humor are always in some degree people of genius.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humor.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Love is flower like Friendship is like a sheltering tree.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Sympathy constitutes friendship; but in love there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion. Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Not one man in a thousand has the strength of mind or the goodness of heart to be an atheist.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Exclusively of the abstract sciences, the largest and worthiest portion of our knowledge consists of aphorisms: and the greatest and best of men is but an aphorism.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Alas! they had been friends in youth but whispering tongues can poison truth.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited; genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Works of imagination should be written in very plain language the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Love is flower like Friendship is like a sheltering tree.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Friendship is a sheltering tree.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order; - poetry = the best words in the best order.Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.Samuel Taylor Coleridge