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Paul Engle Quotes

Powerful Paul Engle for Daily Growth

About Paul Engle

Paul Engle (1908-1991) was an American writer, editor, and literary figure who made significant contributions to American literature during the mid-20th century. Born in Kansas on June 6, 1908, Engle grew up in a small town environment that later inspired his works. Engle's early years were marked by a deep love for literature. He earned his bachelor's degree from Baker University and a master's degree from the University of Iowa. These educational institutions would prove to be influential in shaping Engle's literary career. In 1937, Engle moved to Iowa City where he became an assistant professor at the University of Iowa. During his tenure, he co-founded the Iowa Writers' Workshop, one of the most prestigious creative writing programs in the world. Among the notable authors who passed through this program during Engle's time were John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut, and Flannery O'Connor. Engle's own works reflect his Midwestern upbringing and often explore themes of community, identity, and morality. His most famous work, "The River's Edge" (1943), is a collection of short stories set in the Kansas countryside. The book earned Engle critical acclaim and solidified his reputation as an important voice in American literature. In addition to his writing and teaching, Engle was active in literary circles, serving as editor for various publications including "The Iowa Review" and "Ploughshares." He received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Academy of American Poets' Wallace Stevens Award. Paul Engle passed away on February 28, 1991, leaving behind a rich literary legacy that continues to inspire writers today. His works remain an integral part of American literature, providing insights into the human condition while capturing the essence of Midwestern life.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable."

This quote by Paul Engle suggests that art is not merely an occupation or means for financial gain, but a deeply human endeavor that enriches our lives emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. Art has the power to alleviate the stresses and hardships of daily existence, making life more bearable. It serves as a vital expression of humanity's creativity, resilience, and capacity for connection, fostering understanding, empathy, and growth within ourselves and our communities.

"Education is the sum total of everything we learn from each other, every moment of every day of our lives."

This quote by Paul Engle highlights the idea that education isn't just confined to formal learning environments or structured classes; it encompasses all experiences, interactions, and knowledge exchanged throughout our lifetimes. Essentially, it underlines the importance of continuous learning from one another in both expected and unexpected moments. It encourages us to find value and insights in every encounter, recognizing that everyone has something valuable to teach, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In this sense, life itself becomes a classroom where we are constantly growing and evolving through mutual exchange of ideas, experiences, and wisdom.

"To educate men's minds, it does not require you to drain the marrow of their bones."

This quote by Paul Engle suggests that education should be mentally stimulating without being physically or emotionally exhausting. It implies that one can cultivate intellectual growth while preserving an individual's vitality, strength, and enthusiasm. In other words, learning should enrich our minds without draining us completely.

"The university must be a meeting ground, where there are no walls, where people can come together and learn from one another."

This quote emphasizes the importance of academic institutions as spaces for diverse individuals to connect, collaborate, and learn from each other without barriers or restrictions. It advocates for an educational environment that fosters understanding, respect, and mutual growth among students, faculty, and staff from various backgrounds and perspectives. The ideal university, according to Paul Engle, is a melting pot of ideas, cultures, and experiences that empowers individuals to grow intellectually while promoting global unity and empathy.

"A truly great university is an intellectual adventure, an exploration of the unknown, a journey into the realm of human possibility."

This quote by Paul Engle highlights the spirit of discovery, curiosity, and limitless potential that defines a truly outstanding university. The university serves as a microcosm of human endeavor, where knowledge is explored, boundaries are pushed, and new frontiers of understanding are constantly being reached. It's more than just an educational institution; it's a place for intellectual adventure, a voyage into the unknown realms of human possibility. This quote encapsulates the essence of the university experience – learning, growing, and pushing the boundaries of human knowledge together with scholars from around the world.

There must be an alternative between Hollywood and New York, between those two places psychically as well as geographically. The University of Iowa tries to offer such a community, congenial to the young writer, with his uneasiness about writing as an honorable career, or with his excess of ego about calling himself a writer.

- Paul Engle

Career, Iowa, Tries, Congenial

You come to know the aches and vanities and tastes and intrigues of an entire neighborhood at a drug store.

- Paul Engle

Know, Aches, Intrigues, Tastes

The corncob was the central object of my life. My father was a horse handler, first trotting and pacing horses, then coach horses, then work horses, finally saddle horses. I grew up around, on, and under horses, fed them, shoveled their manure, emptied the mangers of corncobs.

- Paul Engle

My Life, Fed, Manure, Saddle

I grew up in the prolonged survival of the great age of the horse, with harness and saddle and sleigh bells and horse pictures, not as antiques but the facts of our lives.

- Paul Engle

Survival, Bells, Lives, Saddle

The way to praise a poet is to write a poem.

- Paul Engle

Poet, Way, Write, Poem

Our small ears never had such a workout as on the Fourth of July, hearing not only our own bursting crackers but also those of our friends, and often the boom of homemade cannon shot off by daring boys of 16 years, ready to lose a hand if it blew up.

- Paul Engle

Small, Own, Boom, Homemade

I have published in 'The New Yorker,' 'Holiday,' 'Life,' 'Mademoiselle,' 'American Heritage,' 'Horizon,' 'The Ladies Home Journal,' 'The Kenyon Review,' 'The Sewanee Review,' 'Poetry,' 'Botteghe Oscure,' the 'Atlantic Monthly,' 'Harper's.'

- Paul Engle

American, New, Heritage, Ladies

Touch was important. The evening of the Third of July we would go around the neighborhood and look at the fireworks others had bought, taking them out of the brown paper sack and handling them cautiously as if they were precious stones. There was envy when we saw sacks with more in them than we had.

- Paul Engle

Envy, Had, Sack, Fireworks

Soldiers of the American Revolution fought that 18th century war with heavy muskets. In the early 20th century, we kids fought it every Fourth of July not only with exploding powder and shimmering flares, but with all of our senses.

- Paul Engle

Senses, Exploding, Fought, 18th Century

Every Christmas should begin with the sound of bells, and when I was a child mine always did. But they were sleigh bells, not church bells, for we lived in a part of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where there were no churches.

- Paul Engle

Always, Iowa, Mine, Churches

Contrary to slanderous Eastern opinion, much of Iowa is not flat, but rolling hills country with a lot of timber, a handsome and imaginative landscape, crowded with constant small changes of scene and full of little creeks winding with pools where shiners, crappies and catfish hover.

- Paul Engle

Small, Country, Iowa, Pools

The years rolled their brutal course down the hill of time. Still poor, my clothes still smelling of the horse barn, still writing those doubtful poems where too much emotion clashed with too many words.

- Paul Engle

Down, Years, Too, Barn

I have lectured at Town Hall N.Y., The Library of Congress, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Wellesley, Columbia, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana State University, Colorado, Stanford, and scores of other places.

- Paul Engle

Other, Congress, Scores, State University

I began to write poetry in high school, and would ride miles over sandy roads in the fine hills around Cedar Rapids, repeating the lines over and over until I had them right, making some of the rhythm of the horse help.

- Paul Engle

Ride, Some, Had, Hills

But maybe it's up in the hills under the leaves or in a ditch somewhere. Maybe it's never found. But what you find, whatever you find, is always only part of the missing, and writing is the way the poet finds out what it is he found.

- Paul Engle

Always, Maybe, Ditch, Hills

The sharpest memory of our old-fashioned Christmas eve is my mother's hand making sure I was settled in bed.

- Paul Engle

Christmas, Bed, Making, Sharpest

Verse is not written, it is bled; Out of the poet's abstract head. Words drip the poem on the page; Out of his grief, delight and rage.

- Paul Engle

Words, Abstract, Bled, Delight

Has the painter not always gone to an art school, or at least to an established master, for instruction? And the composer, the sculptor, the architect? Then why not the writer? Good poets, like good hybrid corn, are both born and made.

- Paul Engle

Corn, Architect, Least, Why Not

I can still remember the feel in my hand of that most wonderful American coin ever minted, a nickel with a buffalo on one side and the head of an Indian on the other. That nickel was a daily proof of our country's past. Bring it back!

- Paul Engle

Country, Other, Bring, Indian

Without vision you don't see, and without practicality the bills don't get paid.

- Paul Engle

Vision, See, Get, Practicality

For my Oxford degree, I had to translate French and German philosophy (as it turned out, Descartes and Kant) at sight without a dictionary. That meant Germany for my first summer vacation, to learn the thorny language on my own.

- Paul Engle

German, Turned, Germany, Vacation

All families had their special Christmas food. Ours was called Dutch Bread, made from a dough halfway between bread and cake, stuffed with citron and every sort of nut from the farm - hazel, black walnut, hickory, butternut.

- Paul Engle

Had, Nut, Dutch, Dough

I knew about holiness, never having missed a Sunday-school class since I started at four years. But if Jews were also religious, how could our neighbor with the grease-grimy shirt use the word 'damn' about them?

- Paul Engle

Religious, Use, About, Holiness

A barn with cattle and horses is the place to begin Christmas; after all, that's where the original event happened, and that same smell was the first air that the Christ Child breathed.

- Paul Engle

Original, Cattle, Christ, Barn

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.

- Paul Engle

Poetry, Emotions, Delicate, Together

I had been warned about Jews by my gentile friends - they did terrible things with knives to boys.

- Paul Engle

Jews, Been, Gentile, Knives

All poetry is an ordered voice, one which tries to tell you about a vision in the un-visionary language of farm, city, and love.

- Paul Engle

Love, Voice, Which, Farm

When I took over the Writers' Workshop, it was one little class and there were eight students. All of them, brilliantly untalented... I had an absolute vision after the first workshop meeting.

- Paul Engle

Over, Workshop, Took, Meeting

Other families bought automobiles; we had a horse-headed hitching post in front of our house and drove horses.

- Paul Engle

Other, Bought, Automobiles, Post

When your first marriage goes into tragedy, you become very battle-scarred... I even thought of suicide. Luckily, I had known some happy marriages.

- Paul Engle

Thought, Some, Very, Luckily

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