Even the worst book can give us something to think about.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKAIt’s a well-known fact: in order to follow doctor’s orders, you have to be healthy as a horse.
More Wislawa Szymborska Quotes
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I’m working on the world, revised, improved edition, featuring fun for fools blues for brooders, combs for bald pates, tricks for old dogs.
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I’m fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.
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All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination.
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All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
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What does the world get from two people/who exist in a world of their own?
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Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand.
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Generally speaking, life is so rich and full of variety; you have to remember all the time that there is a comical side to everything.
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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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After every war someone has to tidy up.
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I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.
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And whatever I do will become forever what I’ve done.
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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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Even boredom should be described with gusto. How many things are happening on a day when nothing happens?
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Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous “I don’t know.
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I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
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I cannot imagine any writer who would not fight for his peace and quiet.
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I don’t know the role I’m playing. I only know it’s mine, non-convertible.
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Memory at last has what I sought.
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Secret codes resound. Doubts and intentions come to light.
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You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects.
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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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Is a decision made in advance really any kind of choice?
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All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
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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.
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At the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn’t possible to save mankind.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA