To be beloved is all I need,
And whom I love, I love indeed.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
“The Pains of Sleep,” l. 51-52 (1803)
Quotations by:
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
(Attributed)
There is one art of which man should be master, the art of reflection.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
(Attributed)
He who begins by loving Christianity better than truth, will proceed by loving his own sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Aids to Reflection (1825)
If it be true, that men are miserable because they are wicked, it is likewise true, that many are wicked because they are miserable.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Aids to Reflection, “Prudential Aphorisms II” (1831 ed.)
(Source)
No man does anything from a single motive.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Bibliographica Literia, ch. 11 (1817)
Experience informs us that the first defense of weak minds is to recriminate.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Biographia Literaria (1817)
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Lyrical Ballads, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” 615-618 (1798)
If a man is not rising upwards to be an angel, depend upon it, he is sinking downwards to be a devil. He cannot stop at the beast. The most savage of men are not beasts; they are worse, a great deal worse.
For 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 (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Table Talk (31 May 1830)
On Pilgrim's Progress. Source text.
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Table Talk (5 Oct. 1830)
Good and bad men are each less so than they seem.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Table Talk, “19 April 1830” (1835)
If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passion and party blind our eyes, and the light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us!
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Table Talk, 18 Dec 1831 (1835)
There are no rights whatever without corresponding duties.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
Table Talk, 20 Nov 1831 (1835)
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Part 2 (1798)
Popularly, "Water, water, everywhere, but not a drop to drink."
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
The Statesman’s Manual (1816)