"A poet's object is not to tell..." - Quote by Aristotle
A poet's object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.
More by Aristotle
More on Poetry
“Writing a poem ... is a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind.”
“Tis now the twenty-third of march,And this warm sun takes out the starchOf winter's pinafore -Methinks The Very pasture gladly drinksA health to spring, and while it sipsIt faintly smacks a myriad lips.”
“Return to Shaoshan I regret the passing, the dying, of the vague dream: my native orchards thirty-two years ago. Yet red banners roused the serfs, who seized three-pronged lances when the warlords raised whips in their black hands. We were brave and sacrifice was easy and we asked the sun, the moon, to alter the sky. Now I see a thousand waves of beans and rice and am happy. In the evening haze heroes are coming home.”
More on Truth
“Never for a moment do we lay aside our mistrust of the ideals established by society, and of the convictions which are kept by it in circulation. We always know that society is full of folly and will deceive us in the matter of humanity. ... humanity meaning consideration for the existence and the happiness of individual human beings.”
“Those who know the TRUTH are not equal to those who love it.”
“There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily”