An unexamined idea, to paraphrase Socrates, is not worth having and a society whose ideas are never explored for possible error may eventually find its foundations insecure. — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
The job of the poet is to render the world-to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
When it aims to express a love of the world it refuses to conceal the many reasons why the world is hard to love,… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
The connectedness of things is what the educator contemplates to the limit of his capacity. No human capacity is great enough to permit a… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension—the attitude that they are inferior to you.… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
“Nothing stays not even change, That can grow tired of it's own name; The very thought too much for it. Somewhere in air a… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
The genius of the Marx Brothers is for parody. They never are themselves. They exist too abundantly to be content with being that -… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
Bring ideas in and entertain them royally, for one of them may be the king. — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
The literature of the world has exerted its power by being translated. — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
I love the fall. I love it because of the smells that you speak of; and also because things are dying, things that you… — Mark Van Doren Copy Share Image
