Explore the meaning of poetry and the motivation of poets with this special collection of evocative quotations...

1. "A poet is someone who is astonished by everything."
   -- Anonymous

2. "Reality only reveals itself when it is illuminated by a ray of poetry."
   -- Georges Brague

3. "The poet doesn't invent. He listens. "
   --Jean Cocteau

4. " In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite."
   -- Paul Dirac

5. " Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."
   -- T. S. Eliot

6. "The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem."
   -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. " There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it."
   -- Gustave Flaubert

8. "A poem begins with a lump in the throat. "
   --Robert Frost

9. " Poetry is the language in which man explores his own amazement."
   -- Christopher Fry

10. " There's no money in poetry, but there's no poetry in money, either."
    -- Robert Ranke Graves

11. " Poetry is to hold judgment on your soul."
    -- Henrik Ibsen

12. " When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses."
    -- John F. Kennedy

13. "Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry, without a certain unsoundness of mind."
    --Thomas Babington Macaulay

14. "The poem is the point at which our strength gave out. "
    --Richard Rosen

15. " Science is for those who learn; poetry, for those who know."
    -- Joseph Roux

16. "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. "
    --Percy Byshe Shelley

17. "Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket. "
    --Charles Simic

18. "A poem is never finished, only abandoned. "
    --Paul Val