Langstone Hughes

…
She, Within herself,
Found loveliness,
Through the soul's own mastery.
...

Dean Young, "Delphiniums in a Window Box"

…

Did you see the meteor shower?
Did it feel like something swallowed?
Every question, conversation
even with almost nothing, cricket, cloud,
because of you I'm talking to crickets, clouds,
confiding in a cat. Everyone says,
Come to your senses, and I do, of you.
Every touch electric, every taste you,
every smell, even burning sugar, every
cry and laugh. Toothpicked samples
at the farmers' market, every melon,
plum, I come undone, undone.

Cornelia Funke

We all know from fairy tales, you can never say no to impossible tasks. 

G. K. Chesterton

The artistic temperament is a disease that afflicts amateurs. It is a disease which arises from men not having sufficient power of expression to utter and get rid of the element of art in their being. Artists of a large and wholesome vitality get rid of their art easily, as they breathe easily, or perspire easily. But in artists of less force, the thing becomes a pressure, and produces a definite pain, which is called the artistic temperament. Thus, very great artists are able to be ordinary men—men like Shakespeare or Browning.

Patti Smith

I just did my thing. I just plowed through it. Whether people liked me or not, I just went ahead and did what I was doing.

Jenny Holzer

Any surplus is immoral.

Lolo Goldbach, "Birthday Poem for Daddy", August 2018

Every year, you feel pure.
It's your day; it's free to play.
You have a birthday every year -
You're older,
And that's sincere.

Blake, "The Voice of the Devil"

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

Tracy Morgan, quoted in The New Yorker

I don't feel pressure — I apply pressure.

Horace Walpole

When men write for profit, they cannot afford to be delicate.

Gillian Rose, Love's Work

There is no democracy in any love relation: only mercy.

Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome

I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story. 

Blake, “The Voice of the Devil”

Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.

Mary Oliver, "Wild Geese"

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Lin Manuel Miranda on Twitter

Gmorning to the distance between you and okay The logistics of your morning The call you have to make The work to be done The coffee There are things to be learned while you navigate the distance It'll be okay You'll get to okay

Auden, "The Age of Anxiety"

We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.