Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

“Poets and philosophers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Universal Declaration... as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations...it not only crystallizes the political thought of our times…

— Dag Hammarskjold

The acknowledged legislators of the world take the world as given. They dislike mysteries, for mysteries cannot be coded, or legislated, and wonder cannot…

— Ben Okri

If poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world, science fiction writers are its court jesters. We are Wise Fools who can leap, caper,…

— Bruce Sterling

The problem with describing poets as legislators is that at that level of politics - politics as political invention - poets have no special…

— Robert Hass

“Poets, the best of them, are a very chameleonic race; they take the colour not only of what they feed on, but of the…

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poets, not otherwise than philosophers, painters, sculptors, and musicians, are, in one sense, the creators, and, in another, the creations, of their age.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley

Absolute is a game with only one player where Absolute forgets itself so it would have a reason to fulfill the motion while returning.

— Dejan Stojanovic

One of my favorite poets, Neruda, writes close to the bone. Though I know only a little Spanish, I like to compare the Spanish…

— Anita Diament

“Lyric poets are always corrupting the young, making them choke in self-pity and indulge in reverie. Dirty sex and direspect for authority is what…

— Charles Simic

“[poems are] crystals deposited after the effervescent contact of the spirit with reality. (cristaux deposes apres l'effervescent contact de l'esprit avec la realite)”

— Pierre Reverdy

“When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at…

— Gustave Flaubert

Most of the more celebrated names among African-American authors, poets, and artists are known to the world because of their association with specific cultural…

— Aberjhani

Defeat furnishes good material to the poets and the artists, but none of us care to have the glory of the conquered apply to…

— Susan Glaspell