I think that I am here, on this earth, to present a report on it, but to whom I don’t know. As if I were sent so that whatever takes place has meaning because it changes into memory.
CZESLAW MILOSZEvery poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before him. At the same time, though, he feels that those old means of expression are not adequate to his own experience.
More Czeslaw Milosz Quotes
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Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy, Repeats while he binds his tomatoes: No other end of the world will there be, No other end of the world will there be.
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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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The soul exceeds its circumstances.
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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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I have no wisdom, no skills, and no faith but I received strength, it tears the world apart. I shall break, a heavy wave, against its shores and a young wave will cover my trace.
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Our memory is childish and it saves only what we need.
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Learning To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.
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Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth.
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What is this enigmatic impulse that does not allow one to settle down in the achieved, the finished? I think it is a quest for reality.
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It is impossible to communicate to people who have not experienced it the undefinable menace of total rationalism.
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Consolation Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.
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A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death – the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.
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I am not my own friend.Time cuts me in two.
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Men will clutch at illusions when they have nothing else to hold to.
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A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death.
CZESLAW MILOSZ






