It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
Come, let us pity those who are better off than we are. Come, my friend, and remember that the rich have butlers and no friends, And we have friends and no butlers. (excerpt from 'The Garrett')
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the value of friendship over wealth, suggesting that true companionship is more meaningful than material possessions.
In this excerpt from 'The Garrett' by Ezra Pound, the poet highlights the often-overlooked truth that wealth can lead to isolation despite its comforts. By urging his friend to feel pity for the rich who, though surrounded by luxury and servants, lack genuine friendships, Pound emphasizes the significance of human connections over material success, suggesting that empathy and camaraderie are what truly enrich our lives.
In practice
During a motivational speech about the importance of relationships over material wealth.
It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
The ant's a centaur in his dragon world. 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 In scaled invention or true artistry, Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down! The green casque has outdone your elegance.
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.
Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
The modern artist must live by craft and violence. His gods are violent gods. Those artists, so called, whose work does not show this strife, are uninteresting.
A melancholy lesson of advancing years is the realisation that you can't make old friends.
To make a point of declaring friendship is to cheapen it. For men's emotions are very rarely put into words successfully.
That's the problem with winning right from the start, thought Ender. you lose friends.
It is one of the major tragedies that nothing is more discomforting than the hearty affection of the Old Friends who never were friends.
We spoke of how to say good-bye,” Jem said. “When Jonathan bid farewell to David, he said, ‘Go in peace, for as much as we have sworn, both of us, saying the Lord be between me and thee, forever.’ They did not see each other again, but they did not forget. So it will be with us. When I am Brother Zachariah, when I no longer see the world with my human eyes, I will still be in some part the Jem you knew, and I will see you with the eyes of my heart.
The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of betraying the other.
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