Ezra Pound Quotes
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Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt.
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The age demanded an image Of its accelerated grimace, Something for the modern stage, Not, at any rate, an Attic grace.
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The author's conviction on this day of New Year is that music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance; that poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music; but this must not be taken as implying that all good music is dance music or all poetry lyric. Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.
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The temple is holy because it is not for sale.
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I have always thought the suicide should bump off at least one swine before taking off for parts unknown.
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Small talk comes from small bones.
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Poetry must be as well written as prose.
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The primary pigment of poetry is the IMAGE.
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There is natural ignorance and there is artificial ignorance. I should say at the present moment the artificial ignorance is about eighty-five per cent.
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If the individual, or heretic, gets hold of some essential truth, or sees some error in the system being practiced, he commits so many marginal errors himself that he is worn out before he can establish his point.
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People find ideas a bore because they do not distinguish between live ones and stuffed ones on a shelf.
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If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good.
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Good art however 'immoral' is wholly a thing of virtue. Good art can NOT be immoral. By good art I mean art that bears true witness, I mean the art that is most precise.
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It is the business of the artist to make humanity aware of itself.
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One discards rhyme, not because one is incapable of rhyming neat, fleet, sweet, meet, treat, eat, feet but because there are certain emotions or energies which are nor represented by the over-familiar devices or patterns.
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The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.
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A civilized man is one who will give a serious answer to a serious question. Civilization itself is a certain sane balance of values.
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Democracy is now currently defined in Europe as a 'country run by Jews,'
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You have been second always. Tragical? No. You preferred it to the usual thing: One dull man, dulling and uxorious, One average mind- with one thought less, each year.
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A man's hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.
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The art of letters will come to an end before A.D. 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.
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Rhythm is form cut into time.
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If a patron buys from an artist who needs money (needs money to buy tools, time, food), the patron then makes himself equal to the artist; he is building art into the world; he creates.
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I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.