Amy Lowell Quotes

I tend not to trust people who live in very tidy houses. I know that on the surface there is nothing wrong with a person being well-ordered and disciplined. Nothing, except that it leaves the impression of that person having lived in the confines of a stark institution which, although he or she has long since left, remains within.

Men are born soft and supple; dead, they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.

Weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing. When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible. When he dies, he is hard and insensitive. When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant. But when it's dry and hard, it dies. Hardness and strength are death's companions. Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being. Because what has hardened will never win.

The work of art, just like any fragment of human life considered in its deepest meaning, seems to me devoid of value if it does not offer the hardness, the rigidity, the regularity, the luster on every interior and exterior facet, of the crystal.

You feel very romantic when you're in a ball gown. Everyone should wear one once in a while.

There's been nothing but discipline, discipline, discipline all my life.

You put on the military outfit, and it definitely tightens everything up and makes you stand up straighter.

I'm a bit of a like girly-girl, really, I like flowery stuff.

Personally, my interest in social history ends around 1959, by which time I was an adolescent. I've always attributed this to my particular sensibilities. I like formality and elegance, and I'm fundamentally conservative.

Beauty doesn't need ornaments. Softness can't bear the weight of ornaments.

The key to my collections is sensuality.

The river flows at its own sweet will, but the flood is bound in the two banks. If it were not thus bound, its freedom would be wasted.

I just don't like showing everything I've got. I don't want to look like I'm trying too hard to be sexy.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

I am the girliest girl.

I don't like dining rooms. I think they have too much structure and are too formal.

I love getting dressed up in a suit because I don't do it all the time.

My father was the classic Puritan. Hold the emotions in check. Keep up appearances.

Sexiness today is not about having a perfect body and wearing a tight mini skirt; it's about what you don't show that's truly sexy.

I hate everything that is rigid. I need freedom.

I like my girls delicate.

I always try to keep one very feminine quality to my style.

It is never wise to slip the bands of discipline.

There is something about you that makes me feel terribly wicked. You make me want to do shocking things. Maybe it's because you're so proper. Your necktie is never crooked, and your shoes are always shiny. And your shirts are so starchy. Sometimes when I look at you, I want to tear off all your buttons. Or set your trousers on fire. I've so often wondered-are you ticklish, my lord?

I'm not a perfectionist but I'm definitely, or well, I like discipline. I'm obedient. I'm not a perfectionist.