Some truly profound poetic insights
Human Spirituality, although elusive of our full knowledge, seems to have "Islands of Certainty" that are well known to its most experienced and intrepid voyagers.
The profoundly impact-FULL quotations set out below will hopefully persuade that many quotations from the supreme Poets actually recognise the significance of numerous, and identifiable, "Aspects of Spirituality and of Being".
Some famous, inspirational and familiar
quotations and quotes showing
the Wisdom of the Poets
Several famous quotations about ~
A Disdain for Material Things
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,-
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining School-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like a furnace, with a woful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard;
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble Reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the Justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances,-
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd Pantaloon,
With spectacle on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans ‐ everything.
William Shakespeare
The glories of our church and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
James Shirley
Poor and content is rich, and rich enough.
William Shakespeare
The loss of wealth is loss of dirt,
As sages in all times assert;
The happy man's without a shirt
John Heywood
Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.
Sir Henry Wotton
Several familiar quotations about -
A Distrust of Intellect
O for a life of sensations rather than thoughts.
John Keats
What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth.
John Keats
The intellectual power, through words and things,
Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!
William Wordsworth
Errors like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
John Dryden
Into the eye and prospect of his soul.
William Shakespeare
Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And learning wiser grow without his books
William Cowper
Two insight-full quotations which suggest that -
Poetical Insights are possible!
God guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;
William Butler Yeats
It is a secret which every intellectual man quickly learns, that, beyond the energy of his possessed and conscious intellect, he is capable of a new energy (as of an intellect doubled on itself), by abandonment to the nature of things; that, beside his privacy of power as an individual man, there is a great public power, on which he can draw, by unlocking, at all risks, his human doors, and suffering the ethereal tides to roll and circulate through him: then he is caught up into the life of the Universe, his speech is thunder, his thought is law, and his words are universally intelligible...
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Several inspirational quotes about -
Charity
Poets are all who love, who feel great truths,
and tell them: and the truth of truths is love.
Philip James Bailey
All love is sweet,Given or returned. Common as light is love,
And its familiar voice wearies not ever
They who inspire it most are fortunate
As I am now; but those who feel it most
Are happier still.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.
William Wordsworth
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity
William Shakespeare
Several famous quotations about -
Purity of Heart
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind:
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.
William Shakespeare
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues
And every tongue brings in a several tale
And every tale condemns me for a villain
William Shakespeare
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience.
William Shakespeare
O! while you live, tell the truth,
And shame the devil!
William Shakespeare
What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted!
Thrice is he armed that has his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted
William Shakespeare
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;
For I am armed so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as the idle wind,
Which I respect not.
William Shakespeare
Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.
William Shakespeare
Several familiar quotations about -
Humility
The best of men
That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breathed.
Thomas Dekker
Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
Alexander Pope
I charge thee, fling away ambition
By that sin fell the angels. How can man then,
The image of his maker hope to win by it ?
Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues: be just, and fear not.
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's and truth's
William Shakespeare
Several inspirational quotes about -
Meekness
Thy steady temper, Portius,
Can look on guilt, rebellion, fraud, and Caesar,
In the calm lights of mild philosophy.
Joseph Addison
Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,
And could of men distinguish her election,
Sh'hath sealed thee for herself, for thou hast been
As one in suff'ring all that suffers nothing,
A man that Fortune's buffets and rewards
Hast ta'en with equal thanks; and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-medled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please: give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart,
As I do thee
William Shakespeare
An inspirational quote about -
Communion with God
I would think - I would feel. I would be the vehicle of that divine principle that lurks within & of which life has afforded only glimpses enough to assure me of its being.
Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ Journal entry of July 14, 1832
Links to our series of Spiritual And Poetical Wisdoms pages are available a little further down this page.
As can be seen from the many impact-FULL quotations, on our "Central" mysticism insights page the True Mystics - be they Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, Taoists, or whatever - all seem to recognise these very same "aspects of spirituality", (i.e. Charity, Humility etc.), as being of an Utmost Significance.
There are however slight differences between the Wisdoms of the Poets and the Wisdoms identified by the Mystics.
These differences in recognition, and emphasis, between "poetic insights" and "spiritual insights" are perhaps more evident in relation to those insights considered on our "Other" insights pages than on the "Central" insights pages.