# Alda Merini's most beautiful lines and quotes

"Poets work at night", "Pain is nothing but the surprise of not knowing ourselves" and the asylum as "a far bigger word than the dark chasms of dreams": the most quoted lines and verses of Italian poet Alda Merini, from The Holy Land to Aforismi e magie, with their source.

- 34 votes · 12 items
- May 13, 2024 · C. Martino
- https://even.best/en/l/5155/alda-merini-s-most-beautiful-lines-and-quotes

## Top 12

1. **Poets work at night / when time does not press on them, / when the noise of the crowd falls silent / and the lynching of the hours is over.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — "I poeti lavorano di notte", Destinati a morire (1980).
2. **Colours ripen at night.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
3. **Pain is nothing but the surprise of not knowing ourselves.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
4. **Madness, too, deserves its applause.** (3 · ▲3 ▼0) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
5. **Children are given birth to every day.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
6. **True lovers are the ones who run away.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
7. **Sometimes I untie myself for health reasons.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
8. **I started crying as a game, and then I believed it was my destiny.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
9. **Beauty is nothing but the unveiling of a fallen darkness and of the light that came out of it.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — Corpo d'amore (2001).
10. **Asylum is a far bigger word / than the dark chasms of dreams.** (0 · ▲1 ▼1) — "Manicomio è parola", La Terra Santa (1984).
11. **There are nights that never happen.** (-1 · ▲1 ▼2) — Aforismi e magie (1999).
12. **Ah, if only I could / awaken love / as a safe slope to my destiny!** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — "Ah se almeno potessi", La Terra Santa (1984).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.