John Keats

Literature English 1795 – 1821 101 quotes

An English Romantic poet, whose sensuous imagery and philosophical depth influenced later poets.

Quotes by John Keats

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Endymion 1818

Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

Ode on a Grecian Urn 1819

I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart’s affections and the truth of Imagination—What the imagination seizes as Beauty must be truth—whether it existed before or not.

Letter to Benjamin Bailey 1817

Negative Capability, that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.

Letter to George and Tom Keats 1817

Do you not see how necessary a World of Pains and troubles is to school an Intelligence and make it a Soul?

Letter to George and Georgiana Keats 1819

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd, Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.

Ode on a Grecian Urn 1819

The poetry of earth is never dead.

On the Grasshopper and Cricket 1817

I have been half in love with easeful Death, Call'd him soft names in many a mused rhyme, To take into the air my quiet breath; Now more than ever seems it rich to die, To cease upon the midnight with no pain.

Ode to a Nightingale 1819

When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain.

When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be 1818

O for a life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!

Letter to Benjamin Bailey 1817

Touch has a memory.

Hyperion 1819

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun.

To Autumn 1819

Is there another life? Shall I awake and find all this a dream? There must be we cannot be created for this sort of suffering.

Letter to Fanny Brawne 1820

I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death.

Letter to Richard Woodhouse 1818

The setting sun, and music at the close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last.

Sonnet: When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be 1818

Give me books, fruit, french wine, and fine weather and a little music out of doors, played by somebody I do not know.

Letter to Fanny Keats 1819

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too.

To Autumn 1819

I have no doubt that you will be a grand poet.

Letter to J. H. Reynolds 1818

The great beauty of Poetry is that it makes everything a poetry.

Letter to J. H. Reynolds 1818

I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.

Letter to Fanny Brawne 1819