Consolation Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.
CZESLAW MILOSZAll of us yearn for the highest wisdom, but we have to rely on ourselves in the end.
More Czeslaw Milosz Quotes
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The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will.
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The soul exceeds its circumstances.
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It is sweet to think I was a companion in an expedition that never ends.
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I am not my own friend.Time cuts me in two.
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In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.
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I imagine the earth when I am no more: Women’s dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley. Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born, Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.
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On the day the world ends A bee circles a clover, A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
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Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.
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The revolt against one’s environment is usually ‘shame’ of one’s environment.
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It was only toward the middle of the twentieth century that the inhabitants of many European countries came, in general unpleasantly, to the realization that their fate could be influenced directly by intricate and abstruse books of philosophy.
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When I die, I will see the lining of the world. The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.
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Poetry is a dividend from what you know and what you are.
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He returns years later, has no demands. He wants only one, most precious thing: To see, purely and simply, without name, Without expectations, fears, or hopes, At the edge where there is no I or not-I.
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The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person.
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I knew that I would speak in the language of the vanquished No more durable than old customs, family rituals, Christmas tinsel, and once a year the hilarity of carols.
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Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed, the date.
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Men will clutch at illusions when they have nothing else to hold to.
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Language is the only homeland.
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What has no shadow has no strength to live.
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For a country without a past is nothing, a word That, hardly spoken, loses its meaning, A perishable wall destroyed by flame, An echo of animal emotions.
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I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy.
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The child who dwells inside us trusts that there are wise men somewhere who know the truth.
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The death of a man is like the fall of a mighty nation That had valiant armies, captains, and prophets, And wealthy ports and ships all over the seas.
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You see how I try To reach with words What matters most And how I fail.
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A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death.
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I’ve always regretted that I’m made of contradictions. But, if contradiction is impossible to overcome, we have to accept both its ends.
CZESLAW MILOSZ