Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by John Ciardi (American Poet)

John Anthony Ciardi (1916–86) was an American poet, critic, and translator who significantly made poetry accessible to adults and children. While he is best known for his poetry and translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Ciardi also authored multiple volumes of children’s poetry, delved into etymology, and provided commentaries for National Public Radio.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, to a working-class Italian-American family, Ciardi received his education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, Tufts University (A.B., 1938,) and the University of Michigan (M.A., 1939.) He served as an aerial gunner in the U.S. Army Air Corps 1942–45 and taught at various universities until 1961. After that, he dedicated himself entirely to literary pursuits, serving as the poetry editor of the Saturday Review 1956–72.

Ciardi’s first poetry collection, Homeward to America, was published in 1940. His book How Does a Poem Mean? (1960) became widely used as a poetry textbook in high schools and colleges. Among his other poetry works are Person to Person (1964,) The Little That Is All (1974,) For Instance (1979,) and The Birds of Pompeii (1985,) which he completed shortly before his passing. Additionally, he wrote numerous prose and verse books specifically for children.

Ciardi’s highly praised translation of Dante’s The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, 1954; The Purgatorio, 1961; The Paradiso, 1970) maintains a rhyme scheme that differs from Dante’s original but captures the essence of the original work using a tense and concise modern-verse style.

Ciardi later collaborated with Isaac Asimov on two books: Limericks, Too Gross (1978) and A Grossery of Limericks (1981.) He also penned A Browser’s Dictionary and Native’s Guide to the Unknown American Language (1980) and A Second Browser’s Dictionary and Native’s Guide to the Unknown American Language (1983.) The Collected Poems of John Ciardi was published in 1997, encompassing his entire poetic repertoire.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by John Ciardi

A neighborhood is a residential area that is changing for the worse.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Cities, City Life

Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Excitement, Love

Honesty: The ability to resist small temptations.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Honesty

The Constitution gives every American the inalienable right to make a damn fool of himself.
—John Ciardi
Topics: America

You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Enthusiasm, Poetry, Suffering

Every parent is at some time the father of the unreturned prodigal, with nothing to do but keep his house open to hope.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Hope

Aristocracy: What is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Class

Patience is the art of caring slowly.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Patience

A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Change

Modern art is what happens when painters stop looking at girls and persuade themselves that they have a better idea.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Artists, Arts, Art

There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Moderation

The eternal world is not merely a world beyond time and the grave. It embraces time; it is ready to realize itself under all the forms of temporal things. Its light and power are latent everywhere, waiting for human souls to welcome it, ready to break through the transparent veil of earthly things and to suffuse with its ineffable radiance the common life of man.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Eternity

Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Intelligence

Gentility is what is left over from rich ancestors after the money is gone.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Manners

Self-government is, indeed, the noblest rule on earth; the obj ect of a loftier ambition than the possession of crowns or sceptres. The truest conquest is where the soul is bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The monarch of his own mind is the only real potentate.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Self-Control

A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.
—John Ciardi
Topics: Universities, Colleges, Education

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