Robert Hass Quotes

“It's hell writing and it's hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written.”

“I would say Gary Snyder, who is from my part of the world as a poet and environmental thinker, will be read just as Henry Thoreau as John Muir will continue to be read.”

“I think that the job of poetry, its political job, is to refresh the idea of justice, which is going dead in us all the time.”

“Images are not quite ideas, they are stiller than that, with less implication outside themselves. And they are not myth, they do not have the explanatory power; they are nearer to pure story. Nor are they always metaphors; they do not say this is that, they say this is.”

“Running in the relay of life sometimes makes me notice that faith takes over the baton when reason finished its part.”

“Collectivism is the best solution for a society in harmony. It will be a success when you find a living being, plant or microorganism that it can be applied to.”

“The task for parents and teachers is not to teach, it is how to inspire the people of youth to find their desire to learn.”

“Facts and science without the presence of wisdom and reason are worth a little less than nothing, while wisdom and reason without the presence of facts and science are worth far more than people without wisdom and reason are capable to expect.”

“The absence of a message sometimes is a presence of one.”

“A well painted facade seldom scares a resident cockroach.”