Bards Quotes

• Stories ought not to be just little bits of fantasy that are used to wile away an idle hour; from the beginning of the human race stories have been used - by priests, by bards, by medicine men - as magic instruments of healing, of teaching, as a means of helping people come to terms with the fact that they continually have to face insoluble problems and unbearable realities.

  Joan Aiken

  Teaching, Healing, Mean

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• The artist envies what the arties gains, The bard the rival bard's successful strains.

  Hesiod

  Successful, Artist, Envy

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• And I myself a Catholic will be,
  So far at least, great saint, to pray to thee.
  Hail, Bard triumphant! and some care bestow
  On us, the Poets militant below.

  Abraham Cowley

  Catholic, Religion, Saint

  Abraham Cowley (1777). “Select Works of Mr. A. Cowley: In Two Volumes: with a Preface and Notes by the Editor. ...”, p.134

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• How have you left the ancient love That bards of old enjoyed in you! The languid strings do scarcely move! The sound is forced, the notes are few!

  William Blake

  Love, Moving, Sound

  William Blake (2005). “Collected Poems”, p.12, Routledge

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• It doesn't matter how you live and die, it's how the bards wrote it down.

  Terry Pratchett

  Matter, Dies

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• Bards were terrible at keeping secrets. They insisted on putting them to music.

  Tanya Huff

  Keeping Secrets, Secret, Terrible

  Tanya Huff (2015). “Sing the Four Quarters”, p.36, Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

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• The will is free; Strong is the soul, and wise, and beautiful; The seeds of godlike power are in us still; Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!

  Matthew Arnold

  Beautiful, Wise, Strong

  Matthew Arnold (2013). “Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Matthew Arnold (Illustrated)”, p.42, Delphi Classics

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• All the world's a stage, and all the men and women mearly players.

  William Shakespeare

  Friendship, Birthday, Men

  'As You Like It' (1599) act 2, sc. 7, l. 139

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• Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Night, Greatness, Born Leaders

  "Book of Humorous Quotations" by Connie Robertson, (p. 29), 1998.

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• Among all men on the earth bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the muse has taught them songs and loves the race of bards.

  Homer

  Music, Song, Men

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• Poetry is the work of the bard and of the people who inspire him.

  Jose Marti

  People, Inspire, Poetry Is

  "Poesia". Essay by Jose Marti, 1891.

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• O Black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?

  James Weldon Johnson

  Music, Fire, Long Ago

  "O Black and Unknown Bards" l. 1 (1917)

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• Of all that writ, he was the wisest bard, who spoke this mighty truth- He that knew all that ever learning writ, Knew only this-that he knew nothing yet.

  Aphra Behn

  Learning, Spokes, Wisest

  Aphra Behn (1871). “Plays”, p.255

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• Such is the fate of simple Bard,
  On life's rough ocean luckless starr'd

  Robert Burns

  Ocean, Fate, Simple

  Robert Burns, Gilbert BURNS, Allan Cunningham (1840). “The Works of Robert Burns. With Life by Allan Cunningham, and Notes by Gilbert Burns [and Others], Etc. [With a Portrait and Facsimiles.]”, p.239

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• Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

  'Twelfth Night' (1601) act 2, sc. 5, l. [158]

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• She has her own glamour, Willy lad. All poets do, all the bards and artists, all the musicians who truly take the music into their own hearts. They all straddle the border of Faerie, and they see into both worlds. Not dependably into either, perhaps, but that uncertainty keeps them honest and at a distance.

  Emma Bull

  Distance, Heart, Artist

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• Bards of Passion and of Mirth, Ye have left your souls on earth! Have ye souls in heaven too, Double-lived in regions new?

  John Keats

  Passion, Heaven, Soul

  'Bards of Passion and of Mirth' (1820)

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• Oh! blame not the bard.

  Thomas More

  Blame

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• Burn to be great, Pay not thy praise to lofty things alone. The plains are everlasting as the hills, The bard cannot have two pursuits; aught else Comes on the mind with the like shock as though Two worlds had gone to war, and met in air.

  Philip James Bailey

  War, Greatness, Air

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• Sometimes humans hit on a moment of profundity more complete than their dim minds could comprehend, and they took that nugget of truth and dumped it in the refuse for the bards and the poets to find, and mangle into yodeling paeans of love.

  Kelley Armstrong

  Mind, Nuggets, Yodeling

  Kelley Armstrong (2009). “Haunted”, p.56, Seal Books

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• A bard whom there were none to praise,
  And very few to read.

  Hartley Coleridge

  Poetry, Obscurity, Praise

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• I'm working now on a collection of Shakespearean sonnets, about 100 of them, that I may publish if anyone's interested. My take on life is a little different from the bard's.

  Jack Prelutsky

  Different, May, Littles

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• Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches - nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair. Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed. The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species. --speech at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1962

  John Steinbeck

  Responsibility, Games, Cities

  John Steinbeck (2001). “A Life in Letters”, p.1250, Penguin UK

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• Modern storytellers are the descendants of an immense and ancient community of holy people, troubadours, bards, griots, cantadoras, cantors, traveling poets, bums, hags and crazy people.

  Clarissa Pinkola Estes

  Crazy, People, Community

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• The course of true love never did run smooth.

  William Shakespeare

  Love, Life, Summer

  'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (1595-6) act 1, sc. 1, l. 132

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