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Ezra Pound
57 quotes
“Poetry is a sort of inspired mathematics, which gives us equations, not for abstract figures, triangles, spheres, and the like, but for the human emotions. If one has a mind which inclines to magic rather than science, one will prefer to speak of these equations as spells or incantations; it sounds more arcane, mysterious, recondite.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Spirit of Romance (1910), p. 5
“It is better to present one image in a lifetime than to produce voluminous work.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (March 1913)
“Image…that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (March 1913)
“The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a Station of the Metro", Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (April 1913)
“Who brought this to pass? Who has brought the flaming imperial anger? Who has brought the army with drums and with kettle-drums? Barbarous kings. A gracious spring, turned to blood-ravenous autumn, A turmoil of wars-men, spread over the middle kingdom, Three hundred and sixty thousand, And sorrow, sorrow like rain.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Lament of the Frontier Guard' (From Cathay, 1915)
“One discards rhyme, not because one is incapable of rhyming neat, fleet, sweet, meet, treat, eat, feet but because there are certain emotions or energies which are nor represented by the over-familiar devices or patterns.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Affirmations: As for Imagism", in The New Age (January 1915)
“Poetry must be as well written as prose.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Harriet Monroe (January 1915)
“Winter is icumen in, Lhude sing Goddamm, Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1915 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ancient Music", in Blast, no. 2 (July 1915), p. 20
“It has been complained, with some justice, that I dump my note-books on the public.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Retrospect (1918)
“Artists are the antennae of the race but the bullet-headed many will never learn to trust their great artists.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1920 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Instigations of Ezra Pound (1920), p. 109
“The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1922 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New Age, March 30, 1922. As quoted in Impact: Essays on Ignorance and the Decline of American Civilization edited by Noel Stock, 1960
“Hang it all, Robert Browning, there can be but the one "Sordello.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From Draft of XXX Cantos (1933), No.2
“Make it new!”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Book title (1935)
“Genius is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jefferson and/or Mussolini (1935), Ch. 23
“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.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Guide to Kulchur (1938), p. 55
“But the one thing you shd. not do is suppose that when something is wrong with the arts, it is wrong with the arts ONLY.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Guide to Kulchur (1938), p. 60
“Our own consciousness is incapable of having produced the universe. God, therefore, exists. That is to say, there is no reason for not applying the term God, Theos, to the intimate essence”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1921 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Axiomata (1921). Quoted in Witemeyer, Hugh (1951), The Poetry of Ezra Pound, University of California Press, p. 26
“If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1950 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted after his arrest for treason; see Treason: the story of disloyalty and betrayal in American history by Nathaniel Weyl (1950), p. 400
“Both in Greece and in Provence the poetry attained its highest rhythmic and metrical brilliance at times when the arts of verse and music were most closely knit together, when each thing done by the poet had some definite musical urge or necessity bound up within it.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1913 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tradition", in Poetry, ed. by Harriet Monroe, III, 3 (December 1913), p. 137; reprinted in Literary Essays of Ezra Pound (1968), p. 91.
“My worst mistake was the stupid suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism, all along.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never was. When I left the hospital I was still in America and all America is an insane asylum.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of letters will come to an end before A.D. 2000. I shall survive as a curiosity.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in A Serious Character (1988) by Humphrey Carpenter
“Not one man in a thousand can be aroused to an interest in economics until he definitely suffers from the effects of an evil system.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1933 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ABC of Economics (1933)
“It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a man have not order within him He can not spread order about him; And if a man have not order within him His family will not act with due order; And if the prince have not order within him He can not put order in his dominions.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And even I can remember A day when the historians left blanks in their writings, I mean, for things they didn't know, But that time seems to be passing.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Without character you will be unable to play on that instrument”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone can run to excesses, It is easy to shoot past the mark, It is hard to stand firm in the middle.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The blossoms of the apricot blow from the east to the west, And I have tried to keep them from falling.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With usura hath no man a house of good stone each block cut smooth and well fitting [...] with usura hath no man a painted paradise on his church wall [...] no picture is made to endure nor to live with but it is made to sell and sell quickly”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Note: Regarding usura, in 1972 Pound wrote in the foreword to "Selected Prose, 1909-1965": "re USURY: I was out of focus, taking a symptom for a cause. The cause is AVARICE.
“Usura slayeth the child in the womb It stayeth the young man’s courting It hath brought palsey to bed, lyeth between the young bride and her bridegroom contra naturam They have brought whores for Eleusis Corpses are set to banquet at behest of usura.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tching prayed on the mountain and wrote make it new on his bath tub. Day by day make it new cut underbrush, pile the logs keep it growing.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The ant's a centaur in his dragon world.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pull down thy vanity, it is not man Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How mean thy hates Fostered in falsity [...] Rathe to destroy, niggard in charity”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To have gathered from the air a live tradition or from a fine old eye the unconquered flame This is not vanity. Here error is all in the not done, all in the diffidence that faltered...”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You damn sadist!" said mr. cummings, "you try to make people think.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The temple is holy because it is not for sale.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pride, jealousy and possessiveness 3 pains of hell”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And of man seeking good, doing evil.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But the beauty is not the madness Tho’ my errors and wrecks lie about me. And I am not a demigod, I cannot make it cohere.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Many errors, a little rightness.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have tried to write Paradise Do not move Let the wind speak. that is paradise. Let the Gods forgive what I have made Let those I love try to forgive what I have made.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Canto CXX (the concluding Canto of the 1975 edition of The Cantos')
“Here is the core of evil, the burning hell without let-up, The canker corrupting all things, Fafnir the worm, Syphilis of the State, of all kingdoms Wart of the common-weal, Wenn-maker, corrupter of all things Darkness the defiler Twin evil of envy, Snake of the seven heads, Hydra, entering all things Passing the doors of temples defiling the grove of Paphos, neschek, the crawling evil, slime, the corrupter of all things, Poisoner of the fount, of all fountains, neschek, The serpent, evil against Nature's increase, Against beauty”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A pity that poets have used symbol and metaphor and no man learned anything from them for their speaking in figures”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All other sins are open, Usura alone not understood.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And for one beautiful day there was peace.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To be men not destroyers”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A slave is one who waits for someone else to free him.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prose: 1909 - 1965. United States: New Directions Publications, Page 354.