Quotes by Ezra Pound

“Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music.”

“Speak against unconscious oppression,Speak against the tyranny of the unimaginative,Speak against bonds.”

“It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.”

“The Garden En robe de parade. - SamainLike a skein of loose silk blown against a wallShe walks by the railing of a path in Kensington Gardens,And she is dying piece-mealof a sort of emotional anaem...”

“L'artGreen arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth, Crushed strawberries! Come, let us feast our eyes.”

“And round about there is a rabbleOf the filthy, sturdy, unkillable infants of the very poor.They shall inherit the earth.”

“Literature is news which stays news.”

“This is no book. Whoever touches this touches a man.”

“And the good writer chooses his words for their 'meaning', but that meaning is not a a set, cut-off thing like the move of knight or pawn on a chess-board. It comes up with roots, with associations...”

“Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear. It doesn't matter whether the good writer wants to be useful, or whether the good writer wan...”

“The individual cannot think and communicate his thought, the governor and legislator cannot act effectively or frame his laws without words, and the solidity and validity of these words is in the c...”

“Love thou thy dreamAll base love scorning,Love thou the windAnd here take warningThat dreams alone can truly be,For 'tis in dream I come to thee.Ezra Pound, The Songtrad. Ungaretti:Ama il tuo sogno...”

“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.”

“I once saw a small child go to an electric light switch as say, "Mamma, can I open the light?" She was using the age-old language of exploration, the language of art. It was a sort of metaphor, but...”

“With one day's reading a man may have the key in his hands.”

“Real education must ultimately be limited to men who insist on knowing. The rest is mere sheep herding.”

“Great Literature is simply language charged to the utmost with meaning”

“Listen to me, attend me!And I will breathe into thee a soul,And thou shalt live for ever.”

“Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.”

“The art of letters will come to an end before A.D. 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.”