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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

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
Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.
EZRA POUND

Adjective Reveal Word
Small talk comes from small bones.
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Body Bone Small Talk
Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry.
EZRA POUND

Artist Green Invention Learning Place True World
Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
EZRA POUND

Charge Degree Greatness Literature Meaning Possible
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 artist is the antenna of the race.
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Artist One Liner Race
When words cease to cling close to things, kingdoms fall, empires wane and diminish.
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Close Diminish Empire Word
This is no book. Whoever touches this touches a man.
EZRA POUND

Book Man Touch
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
A real building is one on which the eye can light and stay lit.
EZRA POUND

Build Eyes Light Reality Stay
The temple is holy because it is not for sale.
EZRA POUND

Holy Sale Temple
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
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
What matters most is not the idea, but the capacity to believe in it completely.
EZRA POUND

Believe Capacity Complete Ideas
What thou lovest well remains.
EZRA POUND

Love One Liner Remain
What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage.
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Heritage True Well
The concept of genius as akin to madness has been carefully cultivated by the inferiority complex of the public.
EZRA POUND

Care Concept Genius Inferior Madness Public
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.
EZRA POUND

Expression Human Language Sum Wisdom
A man’s hope measures his civilization. The attainability of the hope measures, or may measure, the civilization of his nation and time.
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Himself Hope Man Measurement Nation Time
Science is unpoetic only to minds jaundiced with sentiment and romanticism, the great masters of the past boasted all they could of it and found it magical.
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Finding Greatness Magic Master Mindset Romanticism Science
Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.
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Alive Ball Hands Intense Light One Liner Power Reading
The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language.
EZRA POUND

Human Language Sum Wisdom
Any damn fool can be spontaneous.
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Fools One Liner Spontaneous
The art of letters will come to an end before A.D. 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.
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Art Curiosity Letters Survive Willing
Nothing written for pay is worth printing. Only what has been written against the market.
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Marketing Print Worth Writing
When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.
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Agreement Business Man Necessary Oneself

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Ezra Pound Quotes