Wislawa Szymborska Quotes

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• I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Writing, Writing Poems, Absurdity

  Wislawa Szymborska, “Possibilities”

  65 Copy quote

• I prefer the hell of chaos to the hell of order.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Order, Chaos, Hell

  Wislawa Szymborska, “Possibilities”

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• Whether you want it or not,
  your genes have a political past,
  your skin a political tone.
  your eyes a political color.
  ...
  you walk with political steps
  on political ground.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Eye, Past, Color

  53 Copy quote

• Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Inspiration, Writing, Born

  Wislawa Szymborska, Stanisław Barańczak, Clare Cavanagh (2000). “Poems, New and Collected, 1957-1997”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous 'I don't know.'

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Jobs, Inspiration, Artist

  "The Poet and the World". Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 07, 1996.

  42 Copy quote

• This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Morning, Wake Up, World

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.291, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  37 Copy quote

• You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Cosmos, Remarkable, Objects

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• I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Book, Reading, Thinking

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces”, p.13, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  37 Copy quote

• Such certainty is beautiful, but uncertainty is more beautiful still

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Beautiful, Certainty, Stills

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.302, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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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.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Animal, Trying, Different

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Nonrequired Reading: Prose Pieces”, p.207, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  11 Copy quote

• 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

  Creative, Humanity, Mankind

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• Let the people who never find true love keep saying that there's no such thing. Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  True Love, People, Easier

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.190, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It's just not easy to explain to someone else what you don't understand yourself.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Easy

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Poems New and Collected”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• All is mine but nothing owned, nothing owned for memory, and mine only while I look.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Memories, Looks, Mines

  Wisława Szymborska (1981). “Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems”, p.43, Princeton University Press

  30 Copy quote

• Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Teacher, Teaching, Temperature

  Wislawa Szymborska, Stanisław Barańczak, Clare Cavanagh (2000). “Poems, New and Collected, 1957-1997”, p.16, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  32 Copy quote

• There is so much Everything
  that Nothing is hidden quite nicely

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems”, p.194, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Loan

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.310, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Past, Silence, Firsts

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.328, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Each of us has a very rich nature and can look at things objectively, from a distance, and at the same time can have something more personal to say about them. I am trying to look at the world, and at myself, from many different points of view. I think many poets have this duality.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Distance, Thinking, Views

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• In every tragedy, an element of comedy is preserved. Comedy is just tragedy reversed.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Tragedy, Elements, Comedy

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• All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination. Even the richest, most surprising and wild imagination is not as rich, wild and surprising as reality. The task of the poet is to pick singular threads from this dense, colorful fabric.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Reality, Agreement, Wild Imagination

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• The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Revenge, Writing, Hands

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems”, p.46, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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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.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Kissing, Night, Two

  Wislawa Szymborska, Stanisław Barańczak, Clare Cavanagh (2000). “Poems, New and Collected, 1957-1997”, p.20, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Something doesn't start at its usual time. Something doesn't happen as it should. Someone was always, always here, then suddenly disappeared and stubbornly stays disappeared.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Usual, Should, Happens

  Wislawa Szymborska, Stanisław Barańczak, Clare Cavanagh (2000). “Poems, New and Collected, 1957-1997”, p.238, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Four billion people on this earth, but my imagination is still the same. It's bad with large numbers. It's still taken by particularity. It flits in the dark like a flashlight, illuminating only random faces while all the rest go blindly by, never coming to mind and never really missed. . . . I can't tell you how much I pass over in silence.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Taken, Dark, Numbers

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems”, p.105, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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