It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
We do NOT know the past in chronological sequence. It may be convenient to lay it out anesthetized on the table with dates pasted on here and there, but what we know we know by ripples and spirals eddying out from us and from our own time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our understanding of the past is shaped by our present experiences rather than a linear timeline.
Ezra Pound's quote suggests that our perception of history is not merely a straightforward chronology of events, but rather a complex interplay of memories, emotions, and interpretations that resonate from our current existence. This perspective highlights how individual experiences influence the way we comprehend and relate to historical events, emphasizing that our connection to the past is enriched by the ripples of our present rather than a sterile timeline of dates.
Themes
HistoryMemoryPerceptionExperiencePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about how personal trauma shapes our understanding of historical events.
More from Ezra Pound
All quotes →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.
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I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.
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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.
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In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
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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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