Quote#Children
The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a…
Quote byJohn Keats · 1795–1821
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Endymion (1818), Preface.
English (original)
The imagination of a boy is healthy, and the mature imagination of a man is healthy; but there is a space of life between, in which the soul is in a ferment, the character undecided, the way of life uncertain, the ambition thicksighted: thence proceeds mawkishness, and the thousand bitters which those men I speak of must necessarily taste in going over the following pages.
— John Keats
More from John Keats
But were there ever any Writh'd not of passed joy? The feel of not to feel it, When there is none to heal it, Nor numbed sense to steel it, Was never said in rhyme.
It keeps eternal whisperings around Desolate shores, and with its mighty swell Gluts twice ten thousand Caverns, till the spell Of Hecate leaves them their old shadowy sound.
My spirit is too weak — mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep, And each imagin'd pinnacle and steep Of godlike hardship tells me I must die Like a sick Eagle looking at the sky.
In drear-nighted December, Too happy, happy tree, Thy branches ne'er remember Their green felicity.
Sweet are the pleasures that to verse belong, And doubly sweet a brotherhood in song.
then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.