Thomas Carlyle? Benjamin Franklin? Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Johann P. F. Richter? Minna Antrim? Heinrich Heine? William Ralph Inge? Question for Quote Investigator: The most memorable and painful lessons are usually learned via direct experience, but the cost can be very high. A family of adages depict this point of view. Here are two instances: This …
Category Archives: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Quote Origin: Advice Is Like Snow – The Softer It Falls, the Longer It Dwells Upon, and the Deeper It Sinks Into the Mind
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Jeremiah Seed? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Advice that is shouted as a command is often ignored. A different approach is more successful: Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. The prominent English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge …
Quote Origin: If He Found that Flower in His Hand When He Awoke — Ay! And What Then?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A fascinating fragment describes the tangible intrusion of a dream into the prosaic world: What if you sleptAnd what if in your sleep you dreamedAnd what if in your dream you went to heavenAnd there plucked a strange and beautiful flowerAnd what if when you awoke you …
Quote Origin: You Yourself May Serve To Show It, That Every Fool Is Not a Poet
Jonathan Swift? Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Alexander Pope? Théophile de Viau? Matthew Prior? Pierre de Ronsard? Scévole de Sainte-Marthe? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: According to legend a famous literary figure was accosted by a philistine who exclaimed that all poets were fools. The adroit spontaneous response provided a humorous comeuppance: Sir, I admit your general …
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Quote Origin: I Do Not Believe in Ghosts Because I Have Seen Too Many of Them
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley? Don Marquis? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: While perusing the book “Dim Wit: The Stupidest Quotes of All Time” I came across an entertaining topic for Halloween in the following entry about a famous poet: Samuel Taylor Coleridge was asked, “Do you believe in ghosts?” “No, ma’am,” he replied, …
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Quote Origin: Leave Him With a Favorable Opinion of Himself
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Tryon Edwards? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: My favorite poem is “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I love the poem’s opium inspired image of a “stately pleasure dome”. Serendipitously, I came across an insightful remark ascribed to Coleridge that contrasted different types of …
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