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I write for one and only one purpose, to overcome the invincible ignorance of the traduced heart. My poems are acts of force and violence directed against the evil which murders us all.

— Kenneth Rexroth Preface to the second edition (1953)

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More quotes by Kenneth Rexroth

Any talented decadent can make unreality believable. To make reality convincing is another matter, a matter for only the greatest masters.

Classics Revisited (1968)

There have always been those who, though they see tragedy as the outcome of freedom, will nevertheless judge that tragedy is not too high a price to pay.

Classics Revisited (1968)

The holiness of the real
Is always there, accessible
In total immanence. The nodes
Of transcendence coagulate
In you, the experiencer,
And in the other, the lover.

In Defense of the Earth (1956)

Men who live like Casanova are seldom interested in themselves; their egocentricity does not give them time for egotism.

Classics Revisited (1968)

What happened instead of apocalypse and judgment was a long-drawn-out apocalypse of counterrevolution against the promise and potential of a humane civilization.

An Autobiographical Novel (1991)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Kenneth Rexroth (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.