It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
If a nation's literature declines, the nation atrophies and decays.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature is essential for a nation's cultural vitality.
This quote by Ezra Pound emphasizes the crucial role of literature in the health and prosperity of a nation. When a nation's literary output diminishes, it signifies a decline in cultural values, ideas, and identity, ultimately leading to societal decay and stagnation.
Themes
LiteratureCultureDeclineNationProfound
In practice
Example use cases
During a national conference on arts and education, this quote could be used to highlight the importance of supporting literature programs.
More from Ezra Pound
All quotes βThe 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.
Ezra PoundRead
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.
Ezra PoundRead
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.
Ezra PoundRead
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
Ezra PoundRead
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.
Ezra PoundRead
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The studious silence of the library ... Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness.
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You have to teach now - tell a kid how to box out, tell him how to pass, teach him footwork. Players don't understand that anymore.
Oscar RobertsonRead
From this I conclude that the best education for the situations of actual life consists of the experience we acquire from the study of serious history. For it is history alone which without causing us harm enables us to judge what is the best course in any situation or circumstance.
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The pupil who is never required to do what he cannot do, never does what he can do.
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It is one thing to open the schools to all children regardless of race. It is another to train the teachers, to build the classrooms, and to attempt to eliminate the effects of past educational deficiencies. It is still another to find ways to feed the incentive to learn and keep children in school.
Robert KennedyRead
The great object of Education should be commensurate with the object of life. It should be a moral one; to teach self-trust: to inspire the youthful man with an interest in himself; with a curiosity touching his own nature; to acquaint him with the resources of his mind, and to teach him that there is all his strength.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead