It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
Speak against unconscious oppression, Speak against the tyranny of the unimaginative, Speak against bonds.
Interpretation
The quote urges individuals to challenge and resist forms of oppression and conformity.
Ezra Pound's quote emphasizes the importance of speaking out against oppressive forces that limit creativity and innovation. It calls for a brave stance against the status quo, advocating for freedom of thought and expression. By resisting both unconscious oppression and the tyranny of unimaginative ideas, individuals play a crucial role in breaking free from constraints that stifle progress and individuality.
In practice
During a speech on social justice, this quote could highlight the need to challenge societal norms.
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.
The way to defeat fear: decide on a course of conduct and follow it. Keep so busy and work so hard that you forget about being afraid.
I spent five years of my life being treated for cancer, but since then I've spent fifteen years being treated for nothing other than looking different from everyone else. It was the pain from that, from feeling ugly, that I always viewed as the great tragedy of my life. The fact that I had cancer seemed minor in comparison.
Courage is simply doing whatever is needed in pursuit of the vision
I'm told I'm a statistic. I'm told that my young black sisters are disease-ridden... but we are greater than what society tells us we are.
Roll up your sleeves, set your mind to making history, and wage such a fight for liberty that the whole world will respect our sex.
You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them.
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