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Top 25 Sam Hamill Quotes (2024 Update)

Sam Hamill Quote: “Poetry teaches us things that cannot be learned in prose, such as certain kinds of irony or the importance of the unsaid. The most important element of any poem is the part that is left unsaid. So the poetry frames the experience that lies beyond naming.”

1. “Poetry teaches us things that cannot be learned in prose, such as certain kinds of irony or the importance of the unsaid. The most important element of any poem is the part that is left unsaid. So the poetry frames the experience that lies beyond naming.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Most of the ugly wars in history have been wars of religion. And there’s nothing more dangerous than someone with religious certitude who creates consequences in the world that to me are simply inexcusable.”

2. “Most of the ugly wars in history have been wars of religion. And there’s nothing more dangerous than someone with religious certitude who creates consequences in the world that to me are simply inexcusable.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “In pale moonlight the wisteria’s scent comes from far away.”

3. “In pale moonlight the wisteria’s scent comes from far away.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Of course, there are some people who behave rudely. Allen Ginsberg used to like to get up in public and take his clothes off. I don’t do that, but I liked Allen Ginsberg. He was a nice guy.”

4. “Of course, there are some people who behave rudely. Allen Ginsberg used to like to get up in public and take his clothes off. I don’t do that, but I liked Allen Ginsberg. He was a nice guy.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Sometimes people come up and they get infatuated with some little brief imagistic poem or something, and they say, “Oh, I really like your Zen poems.” And I say, “Which ones are not Zen poems?””

5. “Sometimes people come up and they get infatuated with some little brief imagistic poem or something, and they say, “Oh, I really like your Zen poems.” And I say, “Which ones are not Zen poems?””

Sam Hamill Quote: “How reluctantly the bee emerges from deep within the peony.”

6. “How reluctantly the bee emerges from deep within the peony.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “With dewdrops dripping, I wish somehow I could wash this perishing world.”

7. “With dewdrops dripping, I wish somehow I could wash this perishing world.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “When the mind stops striving, the world’s not a problem. A constant heart won’t waver from the truth.”

8. “When the mind stops striving, the world’s not a problem. A constant heart won’t waver from the truth.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Nothing will change until we demolish the “we-they” mentality. We are human, and therefore all human concerns are ours. And those concerns are personal.”

9. “Nothing will change until we demolish the “we-they” mentality. We are human, and therefore all human concerns are ours. And those concerns are personal.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “What poetry does above all else is develop sensibility. And that’s what makes poetry so dangerous. That’s why poetry is so good at undermining governments and so bad at building them. There’s nothing harder to organize than a group of poets.”

10. “What poetry does above all else is develop sensibility. And that’s what makes poetry so dangerous. That’s why poetry is so good at undermining governments and so bad at building them. There’s nothing harder to organize than a group of poets.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “George W. Bush is using language that’s a mirror image of the language of Osama bin Laden when he says, “We have God on our side. This is the struggle of good against evil.””

11. “George W. Bush is using language that’s a mirror image of the language of Osama bin Laden when he says, “We have God on our side. This is the struggle of good against evil.””

Sam Hamill Quote: “I would say that my great political awakening was really born on Okinawa, reading Albert Camus: the “Neither Victims nor Executioners” essay and The Rebel. I was an eighteen-year-old kid. I hated myself. I hated my life. I thought nobody wanted me.”

12. “I would say that my great political awakening was really born on Okinawa, reading Albert Camus: the “Neither Victims nor Executioners” essay and The Rebel. I was an eighteen-year-old kid. I hated myself. I hated my life. I thought nobody wanted me.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “We’re certainly not perfect, and we’re not probably even better than anybody else, except that perhaps we are given to certain kinds of contemplation that provide a valuable balance to the knee-jerk reactionary behavior of most of our newspapers and political leaders. Poets are great doubters.”

13. “We’re certainly not perfect, and we’re not probably even better than anybody else, except that perhaps we are given to certain kinds of contemplation that provide a valuable balance to the knee-jerk reactionary behavior of most of our newspapers and political leaders. Poets are great doubters.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “If only we could touch the things of this world at their center, if we could only hear tiny leaves of birch struggling toward April, then we would know.”

14. “If only we could touch the things of this world at their center, if we could only hear tiny leaves of birch struggling toward April, then we would know.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “I STAND here and watch the people of this world: all against one and one against all, angry, arguing, plotting and scheming. Then one day, suddenly, they die. And each gets one plot of ground: four feet wide, six feet long. If you can scheme your way out of that plot, I’ll set the stone that immortalizes your name.”

15. “I STAND here and watch the people of this world: all against one and one against all, angry, arguing, plotting and scheming. Then one day, suddenly, they die. And each gets one plot of ground: four feet wide, six feet long. If you can scheme your way out of that plot, I’ll set the stone that immortalizes your name.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “I’m a poet who practices Zen. And it’s not, I’m somebody who practices Zen who writes poetry. There’s no separation for me.”

16. “I’m a poet who practices Zen. And it’s not, I’m somebody who practices Zen who writes poetry. There’s no separation for me.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “It would be nice if all the Republicans could put poetry in a little box and put the box under the bed and sit on it, but they can’t.”

17. “It would be nice if all the Republicans could put poetry in a little box and put the box under the bed and sit on it, but they can’t.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “I think a lot of American poets are swimming-pool Soviets. A lot of them have taken the comfortable, self-protective route too often. I know that I certainly have. That’s easy to do.”

18. “I think a lot of American poets are swimming-pool Soviets. A lot of them have taken the comfortable, self-protective route too often. I know that I certainly have. That’s easy to do.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Each of us as poets, as decent suffering human beings, has to find a way to run our lives that is compassionate toward one another and toward our environment.”

19. “Each of us as poets, as decent suffering human beings, has to find a way to run our lives that is compassionate toward one another and toward our environment.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “I’m basically a poetry scholar, and I’m happier here in my studio with my row of Chinese dictionaries than I am, frankly, at Lincoln Center.”

20. “I’m basically a poetry scholar, and I’m happier here in my studio with my row of Chinese dictionaries than I am, frankly, at Lincoln Center.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “We poets don’t tend to be certain a lot. Much of our art is made out of our own uncertainty. And there is a not-knowingness, I think, that leads us back to suffering humanity with a more compassionate vision than most of our politicians have.”

21. “We poets don’t tend to be certain a lot. Much of our art is made out of our own uncertainty. And there is a not-knowingness, I think, that leads us back to suffering humanity with a more compassionate vision than most of our politicians have.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Poets should speak out against what we see as the assault against our Constitution and the warmongering that’s going on. I’m perfectly willing to lay down my life for my Constitution, but I am not willing to take a life for it or any other reason because I think killing people is counterproductive.”

22. “Poets should speak out against what we see as the assault against our Constitution and the warmongering that’s going on. I’m perfectly willing to lay down my life for my Constitution, but I am not willing to take a life for it or any other reason because I think killing people is counterproductive.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “When these idiot rightwingers start complaining about poetry being political, I’m fond of reciting Sappho to them, who excluded men from her world. Why does she exclude them? Mostly because of their warmongering.”

23. “When these idiot rightwingers start complaining about poetry being political, I’m fond of reciting Sappho to them, who excluded men from her world. Why does she exclude them? Mostly because of their warmongering.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “The only thing we all agree on, virtually every poet in this country, is that this Administration is really frightening, and we want something done about it.”

24. “The only thing we all agree on, virtually every poet in this country, is that this Administration is really frightening, and we want something done about it.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “I write in my notebook with the intention of stimulating good conversation, hoping that it will also be of use to some fellow traveler. But perhaps my notes are mere drunken chatter, the incoherent babbling of a dreamer. If so, read them as such.”

25. “I write in my notebook with the intention of stimulating good conversation, hoping that it will also be of use to some fellow traveler. But perhaps my notes are mere drunken chatter, the incoherent babbling of a dreamer. If so, read them as such.”

Sam Hamill Quote: “Winter rain on moss soundlessly recalls those happy bygone days.”

26. “Winter rain on moss soundlessly recalls those happy bygone days.”

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