Samuel Taylor Coleridge Philosopher

Gender: Male
Citizenship: England
Born: Oct 21, 1772
Died: Jul 25, 1834

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief. He was a major influence on Emerson, and American transcendentalism.

Throughout his adult life, Coleridge suffered from crippling bouts of anxiety and depression; it has been speculated by some that he suffered from bipolar disorder, a condition not identified during his lifetime. Coleridge suffered from poor health that may have stemmed from a bout of rheumatic fever and other childhood illnesses. He was treated for these concerns with laudanum, which fostered a lifelong opium addiction.

Poetry: the best words in the best order. poetry

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom. wisdom

No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humor. humor

The love of a mother is the veil of a softer light between the heart and the heavenly Father. love & Mother's Day

The most happy marriage I can picture or imagine to myself would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman. marriage

All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness. sympathy

Love is flower like Friendship is like a sheltering tree. friendship

Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. future

How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them. morning

He is the best physician who is the most ingenious inspirer of hope. hope

Swans sing before they die - 'twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing. nature

I have seen great intolerance shown in support of tolerance. great

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in failure. failure, fear & politics

The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable. architecture

Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never. imagination

Alas! they had been friends in youth but whispering tongues can poison truth. truth

Friendship is a sheltering tree. friendship

To most men experience is like the stern lights of a ship, which illuminate only the track it has passed. experience

Works of imagination should be written in very plain language the more purely imaginative they are the more necessary it is to be plain. imagination

A man may devote himself to death and destruction to save a nation but no nation will devote itself to death and destruction to save mankind. death

That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. faith

Not one man in a thousand has the strength of mind or the goodness of heart to be an atheist. strength

People of humor are always in some degree people of genius. humor

As I live and am a man, this is an unexaggerated tale - my dreams become the substances of my life. dreams