No one feels good at four in the morning. If ants feel good at four in the morning —three cheers for the ants.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKAThis terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.
More Wislawa Szymborska Quotes
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Animals don’t even try to look any different from what nature intended. They humbly wear their shells, scales, spines, plumes, pelts, and down. The conscious impulse to change one’s appearance is found only among humans.
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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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Even the worst book can give us something to think about.
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Memory at last has what I sought.
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Existentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious; they don’t like to joke.
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I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
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Secret codes resound. Doubts and intentions come to light.
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Even a graphomaniac is an extremely complicated person.
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God was finally going to believe in a man both good and strong, but good and strong are still two different men.
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They say the first love’s most important. That’s very romantic, but not my experience.
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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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Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice.
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Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
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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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I like being near the top of a mountain. One can’t get lost here.
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They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one’s behind me, anyway.
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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.
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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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Even boredom should be described with gusto. How many things are happening on a day when nothing happens?
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Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison.
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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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All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination.
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Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two.
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Keep up the good work, if only for a while, if only for the twinkling of a tiny galaxy.
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All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
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And whatever I do will become forever what I’ve done.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA