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”

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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

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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.

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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

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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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• 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

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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

  Creative, Humanity, Mankind

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• 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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• 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

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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

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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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• 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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• 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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• All the best have something in common, a regard for reality, an agreement to its primacy over the imagination.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Reality, Agreement, Imagination

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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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• 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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• I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms, so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Writing, People, Rooms

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• I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Roles, Mines, Knows

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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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• In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Night, Clouds, Usual

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Poems New and Collected”, p.18, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Book, Events, Halfway

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.303, 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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• Even boredom should be described with gusto. How many things are happening on a day when nothing happens?

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Boredom, Gusto, Should

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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

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