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Language Quotes by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

15 Language quotes by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All Language quotes Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s page

Coleridge’s take on language blends Romantic awe with a keen philosophical edge, as if each word were a stepping stone toward deeper truth. These fifteen excerpts highlight his lyrical intensity and the way he sees speech as a bridge between imagination and reason.

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An idea, in the highest sense of that word, cannot be conveyed but by a symbol.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Poetry: the best words in the best order.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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“Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Pedantry consists in the use of words unsuitable to the time, place, and company.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The best part of human language, properly so called, is derived from reflection on the acts of the mind itself.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The juggle of sophistry consists, for the most part, in using a word in one sense in all the premises, and in…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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I do not call the sod under my feet my country; but language-religion-government-blood-identity in these makes men of one country.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The Language of the Dream/Night is contrary to that of Waking/Day. It is a language of Images and Sensations, the various dialects…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Words in prose ought to express the intended meaning; if they attract attention to themselves, it is a fault; in the very…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Where true Love burns Desire is Love's pure flame; It is the reflex of our earthly frame, That takes its meaning from…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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No man was ever yet a great poet, without being at the same time a profound philosopher. For poetry is the blossom…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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For I was reared in the great city, pent with cloisters dim,and saw naught lovely but the sky and stars.But thou, my…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Humor is consistent with pathos, whilst wit is not.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Never can true courage dwell with them, Who, playing tricks with conscience, dare not look At their own vices.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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The first duty of a wise advocate is to convince his opponents that he understands their arguments, and sympathies with their just feelings.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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I do not wish you to act from these truths; no, still and always act from your feelings; only meditate often on these truths…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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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…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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With no other privilege than that of sympathy and sincere good wishes, I would address an affectionate exhortation to the youthful literati, grounded on…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Ignorance seldom vaults into knowledge...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Whether the summer clothe the general earth With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing Betwixt…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is…

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Life went a-maying With Nature, Hope, and Poesy, When I was young!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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