Ernest Fenollosa quotes

“It is a mistake to suppose, with some philosophers of aesthetics, that art and poetry aim to deal with the general and the abstract. This misconception has been foisted upon us by mediaeval logic. Art and poetry deal with the concrete of nature, not with separate 'particulars,' for such rows do not exist.”
-- Ernest Fenollosa

Source : Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, Jonathan Stalling, Lucas Klein (2008). “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry: A Critical Edition”, p.54, Fordham University Press

#Art Quotes #Mistake Quotes #Poetry Quotes

“A true noun, an isolated thing, does not exit in nature. Things are only the terminal points, or rather the meeting points of actions, cross sections cut through actions, snapshots. Neither can a pure verb, an abstract motion, be possible in nature. The eye sees noun and verb as one, things in motion, motion in things.”
-- Ernest Fenollosa

Source : Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, Jonathan Stalling, Lucas Klein (2008). “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry: A Critical Edition”, p.82, Fordham Univ Press

#Eye Quotes #Cutting Quotes #Doe Quotes

“All truth has to be expressed in sentences... the type of sentence in nature is a flash of lightning.”
-- Ernest Fenollosa

Source : Ernest Fenollosa, Ezra Pound, Jonathan Stalling, Lucas Klein (2008). “The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry: A Critical Edition”, p.47, Fordham University Press

#Lightning Quotes #Type Quotes #Flash Quotes

“The obedient in art are always the forgotten . . . The country is glorious but its beauties are unknown, and but waiting for a real live artist to splash them onto canvas . . . Chop your own path. Get off the car track.”

“Only recently serious research into the relationship between photography and art has taken place. Why has it been so long in coming ? In some respects historical research is analogous with that of science. The bringing to light of factual material and the development of ideas is to a large extent cumulative. But when artists themselves were, from about 1910, beginning to tear down the bastions protecting Art in its ivory tower, questioning the idea of Art with a capital 'A', photography was inevitably to assume a new stature both in the eyes of artists and the public, too.”

“Always watch where you are going. Otherwise, you may step on a piece of the Forest that was left out by mistake.”

“Like most of those who study history, he (Napoleon III) learned from the mistakes of the past how to make new ones.”

Source : 'Listener' 6 June 1963

“This book has been a catalogue of mistakes by politicians, moral and practical disasters which led to wars, enslavement and wretchedness on a scale which no previous age could have dreaded or dreamed of.”

“Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.”

Source : Poems (1964) p. 8

“... passion for survival is the great theme of women's poetry.”

“Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content.”

“And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”

“But now, you are twain, you are cloven apart Flesh of his flesh, but heart of my heart.”