Quotations by S.T. Coleridge

December 30, 2009

Quotations by S.T. Coleridge

Coleridge, S[amuel] T[ailor](1772-1834), Nineteenth century English romantic poet, critic, and philosopher

"The most happy marriage I can imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman"

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"I have seen gross intolerance shown in support of tolerance."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into, the mind."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

'The game is done! I've won, I've won!', Quoth she, and whistles thrice.

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing,
Beloved from pole to pole."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Only the wise possess ideas; the greater part of mankind are possessed by them."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"There is no such thing as a worthless book though there are some far worse than worthless; no book that is not worth preserving, if its existence may be tolerated; as there may be some men whom it may be proper to hang, but none should be suffered to starve."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"The imagination then I consider either as primary or secondary."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

"A poem contains the same elements as a prose composition, the difference therefore must consist in a different combination of them, in consequence of a different object proposed."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

"Finally, good sense is the body of poetic genius, fancy its drapery, motion its life, and imagination the soul that is every where, and in each; and forms all into one graceful and intelligent whole."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

"What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea!"

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"Under the keel nine fathom deep
From the land of mist and snow
The spirit slid; and it was he
That made the ship to go."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

"A grief without a pang, void dark, and dear,
A stifled, drowsy, impassioned grief,
Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,
In word, or sigh or tear –"

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dejection: An Ode

NB: This post was last updated on January 24, 2018

Tanvir Shameem

Tanvir Shameem is not the biggest fan of teaching, but he is doing his best to write on various topics of language and literature just to guide thousands of students and researchers across the globe. You can always find him experimenting with presentation, style and diction. He will contribute as long as time permits. You can find him on: