Properly, we should read for power. Ezra Pound More Quotes by Ezra Pound More Quotes From Ezra Pound We do NOT know the past in chronological sequence. It may be convenient to lay it out anesthetized on the table with dates pasted on here and there, but what we know we know by ripples and spirals eddying out from us and from our own time. Ezra Pound here-and-theretimepast The difference between a gun and a tree is a difference of tempo. The tree explodes every spring. Ezra Pound differencesgunspring The only history that matters is the history we know. Ezra Pound matterknows The flavors of the peach and the apricot are not lost from generation to generation. Neither are they transmitted by book learning. Ezra Pound flavorgenerationsbook In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries. Ezra Pound inabilityliteraturepounds Liberty is not a right but a duty. Ezra Pound dutylibertyrights Literature is news that stays news. Ezra Pound inspirationreadingbook Religion I have defined as "Another of those numerous failures resulting from an attempt to popularize art". Ezra Pound atheismartreligion 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 fieldsenoughnight Sovereignty inheres in the right to issue money. And the American sovereignty belongs by right to the people, and their representatives in Congress have the right to issue money and to determine the value thereof. And 120 million, 120 million suckers have lamentably failed to insist on the observation of this quite decided law. ... Now the point at which embezzlement of the nation's funds on the part of her officers becomes treason can probably be decided only by jurists, and not by hand-picked judges who support illegality. Ezra Pound lawhandsamerica Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use. Ezra Pound vacuumsusedoe Utter originality is, of course, out of the question. Ezra Pound originalitycourses Poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics, which gives us equations, not for abstract figures, triangles, squares, and the like, but for the human emotions. If one has a mind which inclines to magic rather than science, one will prefer to speak of these equations as spells or incantations; it sounds more arcane, mysterious, recondite. Ezra Pound squaresmindgiving Genius is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one, and the man of talent sees two or three, plus the ability to register that multiple perception in the material of his art. Ezra Pound mentwoart Fundamental accuracy of statement is the ONE sole morality of writing. Ezra Pound craftsfundamentalswriting The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism. Ezra Pound racestupidmistake Rhythm is form cut into time. Ezra Pound rhythmcuttingform Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something. Don't use such an expression as 'dim land of peace.' It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol. Go in fear of abstraction. Ezra Pound landexpressionwriting The rustling of the silk is discontinued, Dust drifts over the courtyard, There is not sound of footfall, and the leaves Scurry into heaps and lie still, And she the rejoicer of the heart is beneath them: A wet leaf that clings to the threshold. Ezra Pound heartdeathlying Nothing written for pay is worth printing. Only what has been written against the market. Ezra Pound printingliteraturepay
