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The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity.

Ezra Pound

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

Attention Himself Page Popular Reading Secret Writing
I would hold the rosy, slender fingers of the dawn for you.
EZRA POUND

Fingers Hold Morning Myself
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough.
EZRA POUND

Black Crowd Face Wet
A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.
EZRA POUND

Age Greatness Time Translation
A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit.
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Build Eyes Light Reality Stay
The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language, and no single language is capable of expressing all forms and degrees of human comprehension.
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Expression Human Language Sum Wisdom
Man is an over-complicated organism. If he is doomed to extinction he will die out for want of simplicity.
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Complication Death Himself Man Organism
The technique of infamy is to start two lies at once and get people arguing heatedly over which is the truth.
EZRA POUND

Argument Oneself People Start Technique Truth
Poetry is a very complex art, It is an art of pure sound bound in through an art of arbitrary and conventional symbols.
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Art Bound Convention Poetry Sound Symbol
Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
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Charge Degree Greatness Literature Meaning Possible
The what is so much more important than how.
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Important Reason
No good poetry is ever written in a manner twenty years old, for to write in such a manner shows conclusively that the writer thinks from books, convention and cliché, not from real life.
EZRA POUND

Goodness Life Reality Thinking Writing
Christ can very well stand as an heroic figure. The hero need not be of wisdom all compounded. Also he is not wholly to blame for the religion that’s been foisted on to him.
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Blame Hero Himself Religion Stand Wisdom
The worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism.
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Mistake Prejudice Stupidity Worst
Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.
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Ourselves Poetry Stars Willing
A man’s hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.
EZRA POUND

Himself Hope Man Measurement Nation Time

The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity.

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The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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