35 Amazing Samuel Taylor Coleridge Quotes Everyone Must Read

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English philosopher, literary critic, and poet best remembered for his 'Lyrical Ballads'.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge is regarded as the father of contemporary 'Romantic' literature and is renowned for his original poetry and ground-breaking ideas. Throughout the French Revolution, this obstinate pamphleteer actively preached, reawakening the liberal values of middle-class society. 

Coleridge inspired a fresh era of intellectuals, including Emerson, to create exceptional contemplative, speculative, and oracular works. He frequently traveled with William Wordsworth, the father of Romanticism and best remembered as a 'Lake Poets' member. His outstanding works include poems such as 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,' 'Kubla Khan,' and ‘Frost at Midnight’. 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' was penned by Samuel Taylor Coleridge from 1797 until 1798 and published in 1798.

He also wrote analyses of plays by Shakespeare and the famed prose 'Biographia Literaria'. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's writings also claimed that there was a strong 'support of tolerance' during the time, which was intolerant. He wrote many of his works on the existence of God and heaven. The critical writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, particularly those on William Shakespeare, had a significant impact and aided in disseminating German idealism philosophy among English-speaking societies. Many well-known phrases and words were created by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, such as 'suspension of disbelief.' He greatly influenced Ralph Waldo Emerson and American transcendentalism. Samuel Taylor Coleridge studied at Cambridge's Jesus College from 1791 until 1794.

The following Samuel Taylor Coleridge quotes provide a deeper insight into his thoughts about life, the art of poetry, true wisdom, and the meaning of truth. 

Here are some Samuel Taylor Coleridge quotes on life that might work as an inspiration for you as a person to grow.

"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment."

"Nature has her proper interest; and he will know what it is, who believes and feels, that everything has a life of its own, and that we are all one life."

"And in Life's noisiest hour, There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee, The heart's Self-solace and soliloquy."

"Her lips were red, her looks were free, 
Her locks were yellow as gold: 
Her skin was white as leprosy, The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she, 
Who thicks man's blood with cold."

"A man’s desire is for the woman, but the woman’s desire is rarely other than for the desire of the man."

"Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walks in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread."

"Every reform, however necessary, will by weak minds be carried to an excess, that itself will need reforming."

"It is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in order to distinguish, but it is still worse than that distinguishes in order to divide."

"And what if all of animated nature Be but organic harps diversely framed,
That tremble into thought, as o'er them sweeps Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze, At once the Soul of each, and God of All?"

"Until my ghastly tale is told, this heart within me burns."

"Works of imagination should be written in very plain language; the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain."

"O, lady! we receive but what we give And, in our life, alone does Nature live."

"A grief without a pang, void, dark and drear, A drowsy, stifled, unimpassioned grief, which finds no natural outlet or relief, In a word, or sigh, or tear."

The writings of this English poet and literary critic are still an inspiration for many of his readers. Here are some Samuel Taylor Coleridge quotes on poetry that might ignite the deep feeling of your thoughts.

"Water, water, everywhere, and all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink."

"No man was ever yet a great poet, without at the same time being a profound philosopher."

"To believe and to understand are not diverse things, but the same things in different periods of growth."

"Sir, I admit your general rule, that every poet is a fool, but you yourself may serve to show it, that every fool is not a poet."

"For poetry is the blossom and the fragrance of all human knowledge, human thoughts, human passions, emotions, language."

"When a man is unhappy, he writes damned bad poetry, I find."

"If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?"

"Day after day, day after day, we stuck, neither breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean."

"Imagination is the living power and prime agent of all human perception."

"Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order."

"If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awoke - Aye! and what then?"

"He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all."

Here are some Samuel Taylor Coleridge quotes on wisdom that might help you better understand the human mind.

"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom."

"Nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm. It is the real allegory of the myth of Orpheus; it moves stones, and charms brutes. It is the genius of sincerity, and truth accomplishes no victories without it."

"Deep thinking is attainable only by a man of deep feeling, and all truth is a species of revelation."

"They groaned, they stirred, they all uprose, Nor spoke, nor moved their eyes; It had been strange, even in a dream, To have seen those dead men rise."

"Where true Love burns Desire is Love's pure flame; It is the reflex of our earthly frame, That takes its meaning from the nobler part, And but translates the language of the heart."

"Not one man in a thousand has the strength of mind or the goodness of heart to be an atheist."

"Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind."

"Friends should be weighed, not told; who boasts to have won a multitude of friends has never had one."

"Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding."

"People of humor are always in some degree people of genius."

"If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself."

"What is there in thee, Man, that can be known? Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought, A phantom dim of past and future wrought, Vain sister of the worm ..."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was awarded the Browne Gold Medal in 1792 for an ode he composed criticizing the destructive norms of society. Here are some Samuel Taylor Coleridge quotes on the truth that might help you realize the world's true nature.

"Our own heart, and not other men's opinions, forms our true honor."

"Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests."

"Since then, at an uncertain hour, That agony returns: And till my ghastly tale is told, This heart within me burns."

"Experience informs us that the first defense of weak minds is to recriminate."

"Then all the charm Is broken--all that phantom-world so fair Vanishes and a thousand circlets spread, And each mis-shape the other."

"The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind."

"Sympathy constitutes friendship, but in love, there is a sort of antipathy, or opposing passion. Each strives to be the other, and both together make up one whole."

"To be loved is all I need, and whom I love, I love indeed."

"They stood aloof the scars remaining. Like cliffs which had been rented asunder."

"Party men always hate a slightly differing friend more than a downright enemy."

"Plagiarists are always suspicious of being stolen from."

"No mind is thoroughly well-organized that is deficient in a sense of humor."