Denis Diderot on poetry

Patriotism is an ephemeral motive that scarcely ever outlasts the particular threat to society that aroused it.

Scepticism is the first step towards truth.

In order to shake a hypothesis, it is sometimes not necessary to do anything more than push it as far as it will go.

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Robert Frost1874–1963

Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.

T. S. Eliot1888–1965“Philip Massinger”, a biographical essay, in The Sacred Wood (1920)

Poetry too is a little incarnation, giving body to what had been before invisible and inaudible.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963Reflections on the Psalms