And the days are not full enough And the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass Ezra Pound More Quotes by Ezra Pound More Quotes From Ezra Pound What matters most is not the idea, but the capacity to believe in it completely. Ezra Pound what-matters believe ideas It ought to be illegal for an artist to marry. If the artist must marry let him find someone more interested in art, or his art, or the artist part of him, than in him. After which let them take tea together three times a week. Ezra Pound marriage tea art Anyone who is too lazy to master the comparatively small glossary necessary to understand Chaucer deserves to be shut out from the reading of good books forever. Ezra Pound reading forever book Better mendacities Than the classics in paraphrase! Some quick to arm, some for adventure, some from fear of weakness, some from fear of censure, some for love of slaughter, in imagination, learning later . . . some in fear, learning love of slaughter; Died some, pro patria, non "dulce" non "et decor" . walked eye-deep in hell believing in old men's lies, the unbelieving came home, home to a lie. Ezra Pound fear believe lying The artist is always beginning. Any work of art which is not a beginning, an invention, a discovery is of little worth. Ezra Pound inspirational life art The secret of popular writing is never to put more on a given page than the common reader can lap off it with no strain whatsoever on his habitually slack attention. Ezra Pound lap secret writing 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. Ezra Pound money art needs Don't be blinded by the theorists and a lying press. Ezra Pound theorists blinded lying Discoveries are made by gluttons and addicts. The man who forgets to eat and sleep has an appetite for fact, for interrelations among causes. Ezra Pound sleep discovery men I have always thought the suicide should bump off at least one swine before taking off for parts unknown. Ezra Pound suicidal literature suicide A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit. Ezra Pound light eye real To break the pentameter, that was the first heave Ezra Pound break poetry firsts Poetry must be as well written as prose. Ezra Pound prose wells poetry This is no book. Whoever touches this touches a man. Ezra Pound men book Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree. Ezra Pound hygiene degrees inspirational The serious artist must be as open as nature. Nature does not give all of herself in a paragraph. She is rugged and not set apart into discreet categories. Ezra Pound artist doe giving Glance is the enemy of vision. Ezra Pound glances vision enemy Artists are the antennae of the race. Ezra Pound artist race Rhythm must have meaning. Ezra Pound rhythm The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough. Ezra Pound crowds black faces