It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
No man understands a deep book until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.
Interpretation
Understanding complex ideas requires personal experience.
This quote by Ezra Pound emphasizes that true comprehension of profound literature or complex ideas cannot be achieved without firsthand experience of the themes and concepts discussed. It suggests that one must engage with life and gain experiences to fully appreciate and understand the depth of a work, highlighting the interplay between life and literature.
In practice
During a book club discussion, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of personal interpretation.
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.
Every day in school, we said the pledge to the flag, 'with liberty and justice for all,' and I believed all that.
I started culinary school at a very young age, and really I wanted to be out working, cooking, more than I wanted to be in a classroom. You could say I wasn't a very good student - I wanted to be a student of life and experience.
The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'
The great majority of Americans do not know much about Islam but nonetheless fear it as violent, expansionist and alien to their society. The problem to overcome is not hatred, but ignorance.
The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.
In college, I was an education major and qualified for several jobs. But the fame that came with the Olympic medals was too threatening to many people.
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