Gloom and solemnity are entirely out of place in even the most rigorous study of an art originally intended to make glad the heart of man. – Ezra Pound
A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations. – Ezra Pound
Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance… poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music. – Ezra Pound
Any general statement is like a check drawn on a bank. Its value depends on what is there to meet it. – Ezra Pound
People often become scholars for the same reason they become soldiers: simply because they are unfit for any other station. Their right hand has to earn them a livelihood; one might say they lie down like bears in winter and seek sustenance from their paws. – G. C. (Georg Christoph) Lichtenberg
What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. – Robert E. Lee, letter to his wife, 1864