black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

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

Artists are the antennae of the race.
EZRA POUND

Artist Race
A civilized man is one who will give a serious answer to a serious question. Civilization itself is a certain sane balance of values.
EZRA POUND

Answer Balance Civilization Serious Value
If I could believe the Quakers banned music because church music is so damn bad, I should view them with approval.
EZRA POUND

Approval Ban Believe Music View
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
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
EZRA POUND

Agreement Business Man Necessary Oneself
The artist is always beginning.
EZRA POUND

Artist Beginning One Liner
Use no word that under stress of emotion you could not actually say.
EZRA POUND

Emotion Stress Word 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
If a nation’s literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.
EZRA POUND

Decline Education Literature Nation
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
In verse one can take any damn constant one likes, one can alliterate, or assone, or rhyme, or quant, or smack, only one MUST leave the other elements irregular.
EZRA POUND

Element Leaving Oneself Regular Rhyme
A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.
EZRA POUND

Classic Definition Forever Fresh Rule Structure
The history of an art is the history of masterwork, not of failures, or mediocrity.
EZRA POUND

Average Failure History Master Work
A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit.
EZRA POUND

Build Eyes Light Reality Stay
Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing, the rest is mere sheep-herding.
EZRA POUND

Education Insist Limit Reality
A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.
EZRA POUND

Age Greatness Time Translation

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ezra Pound Quotes