black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.

Ezra Pound

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
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
A people that grows accustomed to sloppy writing is a people in the process of losing grip on its empire and on itself.
EZRA POUND

Empire Grip Growth Lose People Process Writing
Artists are the antennae of the race.
EZRA POUND

Artist Race
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
Bureaucrats are a pox. They are supposed to be necessary. Certain chemicals in the body are supposed to be necessary to life, but cause death the moment they increase beyond a suitable limit.
EZRA POUND

Body Chemicals Death Limitation Moments Necessary
The natural object is always the adequate symbol.
EZRA POUND

Adequate Natural One Liner Symbol
USURY is the cancer of the world, which only the surgeon’s knife of Fascism can cut out of the life of the nations.
EZRA POUND

Cancer Life World
Be not cheap or mediocre in desiring.
EZRA POUND

Average Cheap Desire Mediocre
I have never known anyone worth a damn who wasn’t irascible.
EZRA POUND

Myself Racism Worth
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
To break the pentameter, that was the first heaven.
EZRA POUND

Break Heaven Parameter
Until you know who has lent what to whom, you know nothing whatever of politics, you know nothing whatever of history, you know nothing of international wrangles.
EZRA POUND

History International Politics Yourself
Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.
EZRA POUND

Accurate Clear Goodness Language Writing
The act of bell ringing is symbolic of all proselytizing religions. It implies the pointless interference with the quiet of other people.
EZRA POUND

Act Imply People Point Quiet Ring Symbol
The modern artist must live by craft and violence. His gods are violent gods. Those artists, so called, whose work does not show this strife, are uninteresting.
EZRA POUND

Artist Craft Interest Live Modern Violence

If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ezra Pound Quotes