Elizabeth Charles, British writer (1828-1896)

'To know how to say what others only know how to think is what makes men poets or sages; and to dare to say what others only dare to think makes men martyrs or reformers - or both.'

Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family
(a fictionalised account of life of Martin Luther)

Speaking out

Bucharest, photo by Alessandro Galantucci, Flickr creative commons https://flic.kr/p/kfJnfu

 

 

'All great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people - speaking out - in prose, or painting or poetry or music; speaking out - in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes - let that voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind.'

Robert F. Kennedy, 10th Annversary Convocation Center for Study of Democratic Institutions of the Fund for the Republic, New York City, January 22, 1963.

Life Saving

'Her early poetry did not come easily to Plath, who during their marriage, Ted Hughes said, "composed very slowly, consulting her Thesaurus and dictionary for almost every word, putting a slow strong line of ink under each word that attracted her." ... She had a "vision" of the kind of poems she would like to write but "[I] do not. When will they come?" They were waiting.'
Josephine Hart, 2012, Life Saving: Why we need poetry, Virago Press, UK.

W. H. Auden

'When I find myself in the company of scientists, I feel like a shabby curate who has strayed by mistake into a drawing room full of dukes.'