Not Literature Alone, But Society Itself Is

For What I Have Received May The Lord Make Me Truly Thankful. And More Truly For What I Have Not Received.

Fear Is The Deep Motive Of Abstract Art - Fear Of A Repellent Civilization Which Is Dominated By The Power Of Things. ... Who Can Be Surprised If, More Sensitive Than The Others, The Artist Is Terrified By The Power Things Have Acquired Over Us?

War, For Any Cause, Is Inexcusable. There Is Nothing Which Excuses Us For The Beastly Ingenuity Of Our Wars. Only Fools, Only The Diseased, Think That We Are Served By Killing The Strong Young Men With Machines.

From So Much Of This Seriously-intended Pornography There Rises, Even When It Is Lewdly Or Boisterously Comic, The Acrid Smell, Unmistakable, Of Self-dislike.

Writers Sometimes Talk As Though They Were The Only Friends Of Civilization. This Is Their Conceit. But They Have Special Powers To Serve -- Or To Corrupt -- Civilization, And Are Obliged To Use Them.