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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.

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
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.
EZRA POUND

Artificial Ignorance Moments Myself Natural
Poetry is a language pared down to its essentials.
EZRA POUND

Essential Language Poetry
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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Answer Balance Civilization Serious Value
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.
EZRA POUND

Art Goodness Immoral Precise True Virtue
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
EZRA POUND

Curse Early Financial Ourselves Time
If a man isn’t willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he’s no good.
EZRA POUND

Himself Man Opinion Risk Willing
Technique is the test of sincerity.
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Sincere Technique Test
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.
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Day Enough Night Shake
When words cease to cling close to things, kingdoms fall, empires wane and diminish.
EZRA POUND

Close Diminish Empire Word
If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.
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Decline Education Literature Nation
I found after seventy years that I was not a lunatic but a moron, I should have been able to do better.
EZRA POUND

Better Finding Mental Myself
The difference between a gun and a tree is a difference of tempo. The tree explodes every spring.
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Difference Spring Tree Weapon
Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work.
EZRA POUND

Attention Criticism Pay Work Writing
The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.
EZRA POUND

Action Curse Immediate Nation Sort Thinking
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

Ability Art Genius Himself Man Material Ordinary Perception Talent
The only history that matters is the history we know.
EZRA POUND

History Known
Humanity is the rich effluvium, it is the waste and the manure and the soil, and from it grows the tree of the arts.
EZRA POUND

Art Growth Humanity Tree Waste
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
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
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance, poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music.
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Beginning Dance Far Music Poetry
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

Compare Deserve Forever Glossary Master Necessary Reading
There is no reason why the same man should like the same books at eighteen and at forty-eight.
EZRA POUND

Age Book Growth Man Reason
Come, let us pity those who are better off than we are. Come, my friend, and remember that the rich have butlers and no friends, And we have friends and no butlers.
EZRA POUND

Better Friendship Pity Remember Rich
A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit.
EZRA POUND

Build Eyes Light Reality Stay
What thou lovest well remains, the rest is dross What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage.
EZRA POUND

Heritage Love True Well
I have always thought the suicide should bump off at least one swine before taking off for parts unknown.
EZRA POUND

Myself Oneself Suicide Thinking Unknown

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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