The soul exceeds its circumstances.

In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.

The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history.

The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will.

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.

Consolation Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed, the date.

The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.

When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished.

I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy

The true enemy of man is generalization.

They had to call and callAnd pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.--From the poem "Lady Lazarus", written 23-29 October 1962

Time is a very shadow that passeth away.

No matter what identity we cling to, it takes great courage to step out of the old masks we wear and the old scripts that we live by, and open ourselves to the mysterious inner core of our being.

Better a debauched canary than a pious wolf.

I hate the rock music tradition. I can't bear it!

It has taken me half a lifetime merely to find out what is best worth doing, and a good slice out of another half to puzzle out the ways of doing it.

It used to be said that this country was a child-centered one. Nothing could be further from the truth. Children have been our lowest priority, both in economic and emotional spending.

Always preach in such a way that if the people listening do not come to hate their sin, they will instead hate you

Etch your vision in stone-but sketch your strategy in pencil.

It is not alone that property, in all its forms, is struck at, but that liberty, in all its forms, is challenged by the fundamental conceptions of socialism.