And whatever I do will become forever what I’ve done.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKASomewhere out there the world must have an end.
More Wislawa Szymborska Quotes
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After every war someone has to tidy up.
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I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
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All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
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No one in my family has ever died of love. What happened, happened, but nothing myth-inspiring.
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Poetic talent doesn’t operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.
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All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Secret codes resound. Doubts and intentions come to light.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!
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Such certainty is beautiful, but uncertainty is more beautiful still.
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I’d have to be really quick to describe clouds – a split second’s enough for them to start being something else.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA -
Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know.
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I’m old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.
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Loveless work, boring work, work valued only because others haven’t got even that much, however loveless and boring – this is one of the harshest human miseries.
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Poorly prepared for the dignity of life, I barely keep up with the pace of the action imposed. Reality demands.
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I slide my arm from under the sleeper’s head and it is numb, full of swarming pins, on the tip of each, waiting to be counted, the fallen angels sit.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA






