The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
~ Mark Van Doren - [Teachers and Teaching]

The job of the poet is to render the world -- to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.
~ Mark Van Doren - [Poetry and Poets]

To fail to love is not to exist at all.
~ Mark Van Doren - [Love]

To be what no one ever was, to be what everyone has been: Freedom is the mean of those extremes that fence all effort in.
~ Mark Van Doren - [Freedom]

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.
~ Mark Van Doren - [Wit]