Of course, a scholar who attempts anything but scholarship is rather in the position of a man who has volunteered to amuse a children's party; he is not sure that his really solid virtues will count for much.

Ned Pratt is the only figure in Canadian literature, so far, great enough to establish a personal legend. And the legend was unique because it had the poet behind it.

The television set is so much more introverted than even the movie, and the movie in turn, more introverted than the concert hall or the stage

If any literary work is emotionally 'depressing,' there is something wrong with either the writing or the reader's response.

The whole notion of 'productive' is an assembly-line notion that is now being outgrown. A scholar should take a creative interest in his subject, and what will make the 'productive' compulsion less universal will be the rise in adult education.

The mystic finds, at the heart of the illusion of space, a real presence.

Surely, living in an illusion is the greatest of torments, and becoming disillusioned ought to feel like being let out of jail.

It is in the imagination that the world becomes more intelligible, and communication proceeds without the obstacles of cultural difference.

If the human race were to destroy both itself and the planet it lives on, that would be the final triumph of illusion.

Imagination is not fantasy; what it produces is really and permanently there, and the creative mind is not the subjective or introverted mind.