It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
No verse is libre for the man who wants to do a good job.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creating great work requires dedication and a sense of responsibility.
This quote by Ezra Pound emphasizes that true artistry and excellence come with commitment and the understanding that one must work diligently to achieve quality. It suggests that freedom in expression is constrained by the seriousness of the task at hand; the desire to do well imposes certain limitations and responsibilities on the creator.
Themes
ArtistryCommitmentResponsibilityExcellenceDedication
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a workshop on creative writing to emphasize the importance of discipline.
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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Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.
Albert SchweitzerRead
One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.
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Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
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When you resolve to become pious, the devil in your nature cries out at you, "Tread not those paths, O confused one; distress and poverty will overcome you. You will be despised, let down by friends, you will regret it." Dread of the devil has bound their souls; the cries of the devil are the drover of the damned; the call of the Lord is a guardian of the saints.
RumiRead
To boast of a performance which I cannot beat is merely stupid vanity. And if I can beat it that means there is nothing special about it. What has passed is already finished with. What I find more interesting is what is still to come.
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Nothing speeds brain atrophy more than being immobilized in the same environment.
Norman DoidgeRead