It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
The Image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that an image transcends mere ideas, embodying a powerful combination of thoughts and energy.
Ezra Pound highlights the depth of visual art, suggesting that an image is not just a singular concept but a dynamic amalgamation of multiple ideas that combine to create a resonant impact. This fusion of thoughts gives an image its inherent energy, making it a powerful medium for expression and communication.
Themes
ImageArtIdeasEnergyVisualExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the power of visual communication, one might use this quote to illustrate how imagery evokes complex ideas.
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
Similar quotes
To write something, you have to risk making a fool of yourself.
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I was a very observant child. Almost anything could become a song to me.
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When I have had such men before my camera my whole soul has endeavored to do its duty towards them in recording faithfully the greatness of the inner as well as the features of the outer man. The photograph thus taken has been almost the embodiment of a prayer.
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What's great about being a character actor is you know that you can survive forever. It's not about the gloss of your eyebrows.
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To be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail, that failure is his world and the shrink from desertion, art and craft, good housekeeping, living.
Samuel BeckettRead