black
grey
blue
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Be not cheap or mediocre in desiring.

Ezra Pound

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

Adjective Reveal Word
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet black bough.
EZRA POUND

Black Crowd Face Wet
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
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
Artists are the antennae of the race.
EZRA POUND

Artist Race
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
The real trouble with war (modern war) is that it gives no one a chance to kill the right people.
EZRA POUND

Chance Kill Oneself People Problem Reality Right War
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
The temple is holy because it is not for sale.
EZRA POUND

Holy Sale Temple
The sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language.
EZRA POUND

Human Language Sum Wisdom
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
From the colour the nature And by the nature the sign! Beatific spirits welding together As in one ash-tree in Ygdrasail.
EZRA POUND

Color Nature Togetherness Tree
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
Poetry is a language pared down to its essentials.
EZRA POUND

Essential Language Poetry
Use no word that under stress of emotion you could not actually say.
EZRA POUND

Emotion Stress Word Yourself

Be not cheap or mediocre in desiring.

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Be not cheap or mediocre in desiring.

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