If a man isn't willing to take some risk for his opinions, either his opinions are no good or he's no good.
Ezra PoundThe curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.
Ezra PoundThe man of understanding can no more sit quiet and resigned while his country lets its literature decay, and lets good writing meet with contempt, than a good doctor could sit quiet and contented while some ignorant child was infecting itself with tuberculosis under the impression that it was merely eating jam tarts.
Ezra PoundThe sum of human wisdom is not contained in any one language, and no single language is capable of expressing all forms and degrees of human comprehension.
Ezra PoundUse no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something. Don't use such an expression as 'dim land of peace.' It dulls the image. It mixes an abstraction with the concrete. It comes from the writer's not realizing that the natural object is always the adequate symbol. Go in fear of abstraction.
Ezra Pound