In the evolution of mankind there has always been a certain degree of social coherence.

I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state of nature.

Morality, as has often been pointed out, is antecedent to religion-it even exists in a rudimentary form among animals.

Progress is measured by richness and intensity of experience - by a wider and deeper apprehension of the significance and scope of human existence.

The modern work of art, as I have said, is a symbol.

In order to create it is necessary to destroy; and the agent of destruction in society is the poet. I believe that the poet is necessarily an anarchist, and that he must oppose all organized conceptions of the State, not only those which we inherit from the past, but equally those which are imposed on people in the name of the future.

But all categories of art, idealistic or realistic, surrealistic or constructivist (a new form of idealism) must satisfy a simple test (or they are in no sense works of art): they must persist as objects of contemplation.