Arthur Davison Ficke Quotes

• Collecting at its best is very far from mere acquisitiveness; it may become one of the most humanistic of occupations, seeking to illustrate by the assembling of significant reliques, the march of the human spirit in its quest for beauty.

  Arthur Davison Ficke

  Quests, Occupation, May

  12 Copy quote

• Love is the simplest of all earthly things.
  It needs no grandeur of celestial trust
  In more than what it is, no holy wings:
  It stands with honest feet in honest dust,
  And is the body's blossoming in clear air
  Of trustfulness and joyance when alone
  Two mortals pass beyond the hour's despair
  And claim that Paradise which is their own.
  Amid a universe of sweat and blood,
  Beyond the glooms of all the nations' hate,
  Lovers, forgetful of the poisoned mood
  Of the loud world, in secret ere too late
  A gentle sacrament may celebrate
  Before their private altar of the good.

  Arthur Davison Ficke

  Hate, Love Is, Dust

  4 Copy quote

• A man must learn to forgive himself.

  Arthur Davison Ficke

  Inspirational, Forgiveness, Men

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• Secret Instructions for Reaching Xanadu: Go eastward from the Bewildered-Dragon Lake Until you see the Monastery of the West Tower straight and high above your head. Then take Those charms which, as I told you, in the breast Of your most inner robe you have hidden, and follow Their clear instruction.

  Arthur Davison Ficke

  Lakes, Dragons, Secret

  Arthur Davison Ficke (1938). “Selected Poems: With a Preface on the Nature of Poetry”

  4 Copy quote

• The collector attempts always to acquire the best, and his knowledge of what is best is always widening. His is the task of judging between degrees of perfection.

  Arthur Davison Ficke

  Judging, Perfection, Degrees

  7 Copy quote

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