81 Quotes by John Ciardi

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

He had his choice, and he liked the worst.

Translator's Note: When the violin repeats what the piano has just played, it cannot make the same sounds and it can only approximate the same chords. It can, however, make recognizably the same "music", the same air. But it can do so only when it is as faithful to the self-logic of the violin as it is to the self-logic of the piano.

Tell me how much a nation knows about its own language, and I will tell you how much that nation knows about its own identity.

The day will happenwhether or not you get up

I have one head that wants to be good,And one that wants to be bad.And always, as soon as I get up,One of my heads is sad.

I'm smiled out, talked out, quipped out, socialized so far from any being, I need the weight of mortal silences to get realized back into myself.

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

There was a young lady from GloucesterWho complained that her parents both bossed her,So she ran off to Maine.Did her parents complain?Not at all -- they were glad to have lost her.