A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Change
Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Manners
A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Universities, Education
Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Honesty
Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Art, Artists
The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
—John Ciardi
Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Intelligence
Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Love
A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Cities
Aristocracy: What is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Class
You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Enthusiasm, Poetry, Suffering
Patience is the art of caring slowly.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Patience
Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Hope
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Ram Dass American Hindu New Age Pioneer
Christa McAuliffe American Teacher
Amos Bronson Alcott American Teacher
Theodore Roethke American Poet
Bayard Taylor American Poet
Robert Henri American Painter
Joseph Goldstein American Buddhist Teacher
Sivaya Subramuniyaswami American Hindu Teacher
Robert Frost American Poet
Swami Chinmayananda Indian Hindu Spiritual Teacher