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To say that a state cannot pursue its aims because there is no money, is like saying that an engineer cannot build roads, because there are no kilometers.

Ezra Pound

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

Artist Build Creation Equality Money World
Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
EZRA POUND

Charge Degree Greatness Literature Meaning Possible
Poetry must be as well written as prose.
EZRA POUND

Literature Poetry Prose Writing
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough.
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Black Crowd Face Wet
No man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.
EZRA POUND

Book Content Deep Live Man See Understand
Poets who are not interested in music are, or become, bad poets.
EZRA POUND

Bad Interest Music Poet
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
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Agreement Business Man Necessary Oneself
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
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
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
The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language.
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Human Language Sum Wisdom
Poetry is a language pared down to its essentials.
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Essential Language Poetry
Don’t be blinded by the theorists and a lying press.
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Blind Lying Press Theory
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
It doesn’t matter which leg of your table you make first, so long as the table has four legs and will stand up solidly when you have finished it.
EZRA POUND

Finish Solid Stand Table Yourself
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
Wars in old times were made to get slaves. The modern implement of imposing slavery is debt.
EZRA POUND

Debt Implement Loan Modern Old Slave Time War
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

Day Enough Night Shake
Seems fairly clear that you fix a breed by LIMITING the amount of alien infiltration. You make a race by homogeneity and by avoiding in breeding, No argument has ever been sprouted against it. You like it in dogs and horses.
EZRA POUND

Argument Avoid Clear Infiltrate Limitation Race Yourself
Wars are made to make debt.
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Loan One Liner War
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
Liberty is not a right but a duty.
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Duty Liberty One Liner Right
Every great change is simple.
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Change Greatness One Liner Simplicity
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.
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Artist Category Herself Nature Paragraph Serious
Rhythm is form cut into time.
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Form Rhythm Time
Technique is the test of sincerity.
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Sincere Technique Test
Consider the way of the scientists rather than the way of an advertising agent for a new soap.
EZRA POUND

Advertisement Science Soap Way

To say that a state cannot pursue its aims because there is no money, is like saying that an engineer cannot build roads, because there are no kilometers.

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To say that a state cannot pursue its aims because there is no money, is like saying that an engineer cannot build roads, because there are no kilometers.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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