Philosophy Quote by Guy Davenport

Art knows neither doctrine nor idea; its nature is to show.

— Guy Davenport

I was thought to be retarded as a child, and all the evidence indicates that I was.

— Guy Davenport

“Sometimes when reading Goethe I have a paralyzing suspicion that he is trying to be funny.”

— Guy Davenport

The poet is at the edge of our consciousness of the world, finding beyond the suspected nothingness which we imagine limits our perception another…

— Guy Davenport

“The poet and poetess have always had a rough time of it in the Republic. It has ever been their endemic luck to starve,…

— Guy Davenport

Something of the previous state, however, survives every change. This is called in the language of cybernetics (which took it form the language of…

— Guy Davenport

I’ve carved the puppet, and I manipulate the strings, but while it’s on stage, the show belongs to the puppet.

— Guy Davenport

Art is the attention we pay to the wholeness of the world.

— Guy Davenport

“I God, a very Gomorry on wheels! You lead the most exciting life I know of, and complain more about it than any two…

— Guy Davenport

“Man was first a hunter, and an artist: his early vestiges tell us that alone. But he must always have dreamed, and recognized and…

— Guy Davenport

It is worthwhile adding that the power of the poem to teach not only sensibilities and the subtle movements of the spirit but knowledge,…

— Guy Davenport

nothing now exists that is so valuable as whatever theoretically might replace it.

— Guy Davenport