Poets yearn, of course, to be published, read, and understood, but they do little, if anything, to set themselves above the common herd and the daily grind.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKAPoets yearn, of course, to be published, read, and understood, but they do little, if anything, to set themselves above the common herd and the daily grind.
More Wislawa Szymborska Quotes
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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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I cannot imagine any writer who would not fight for his peace and quiet.
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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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Any knowledge that doesn’t lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.
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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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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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And whatever I do will become forever what I’ve done.
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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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All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
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I am who I am. A coincidence no less unthinkable than any other.
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All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.
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No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses.
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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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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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Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA






