I Call Religion A Natural Authority, But

My Own Early Experiences In War Led Me To Suspect The Value Of Discipline, Even In That Sphere Where It Is So Often Regarded As The First Essential For Success.

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.

The Worth Of A Civilization Or A Culture Is Not Valued In The Terms Of Its Material Wealth Or Military Power, But By The Quality And Achievements Of Its Representative Individuals - Its Philosophers, Its Poets And Its Artists.

Sensibility... Is A Direct And Particular Reaction To The Separate And Individual Nature Of Things. It Begins And Ends With The Sensuous Apprehension Of Colour, Texture And Formal Relations; And If We Strive To Organize These Elements, It Is Not With The Idea Of Increasing The Knowledge Of The Mind, But Rather In Order To Intensify The Pleasure Of The Senses.

It Does Not Seem That The Contradiction Which Exists Between The Aristocratic Function Of Art And The Democratic Structure Of Modern Society Can Ever Be Resolved.