Quotes by "John Ciardi"

A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.

Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.

Boys are the cash of war. Whoever said: we're not free spenders- doesn't know our like.

If a man means his writing seriously, he must mean to write well. But how can he write well until he learns to see what he has written badly. His progress toward good writing and his recognition of bad writing are bound to unfold at something like the same rate.

And the time sundials tell May be minutes and hours. But it may just as well Be seconds and sparkles, or seasons and flowers. No, I don't think of time as just minutes and hours. Time can be heartbeats, or bird songs, or miles, Or waves on a beach, or ants in their files (They do move like seconds—just watch their feet go: Tick-tick-tick, like a clock). You'll learn as you grow That whatever there is in a garden, the sun Counts up on its dial. By the time it is done Our sundial—or someone's— will certainly add All the good things there are. Yes, and all of the bad. And if anyone's here for the finish, the sun Will have told him—by sundial—how well we have done. How well we have done, or how badly. Alas, That is a long thought. Let me hope we all pass.

The reader deserves an honest opinion. If he doesn't deserve it, give it to him anyhow.

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.

It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.

A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.

There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.

Written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar.

Nothing goes further toward a man's liberation than the act of surviving his need for character.