We Must Reject That Most Dismal And

The Bedrock Of Doubt Is The Total Nothingness Of Death. Death Is A Leveler, Not Because Everybody Dies, But Because Nobody Understands What Death Means.

We Must Reject That Most Dismal And Fatuous Notion That Education Is A Preparation For Life.

The Operations Of The Human Mind Are Also Controlled By Words Of Power, Formulas That Become A Focus Of Mental Activity.

For The Serious Mediocre Writer Convention Makes Him Sound Like A Lot Of Other People; For The Popular Writer It Gives Him A Formula He Can Exploit; For The Serious Good Writer It Releases His Experiences Or Emotions From Himself And Incorporates Them Into Literature, Where They Belong.

A Public That Tries To Do Without Criticism, And Asserts That It Knows What It Wants Or Likes, Brutalizes The Arts And Loses Its Cultural Memory. Art For Art's Sake Is A Retreat From Criticism Which Ends In An Impoverishment Of Civilized Life Itself.