Czesław Miłosz quotes

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose. (Czesław Miłosz)
The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
It is impossible to communicate to people who have not experienced it the undefinable menace of total rationalism. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Our memory is childish and it saves only what we need. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Learning To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Consolation Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
And if there is no lining to the world? If a thrush on a branch is not a sign, But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day Make no sense following each other? View quote
Czesław Miłosz
For a country without a past is nothing, a word That, hardly spoken, loses its meaning, A perishable wall destroyed by flame, An echo of animal emotions. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
When I die, I will see the lining of the world. The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
- Even if that is so, there will remain A word wakened by lips that perish, A tireless messenger who runs and runs Through interstellar fields, through the revolving galaxies, And calls out, protests, screams. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees, From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me. Before the five senses were opened, and earlier than any beginning They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals, So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness. (Czesław Miłosz)
A man should not love the moon. An ax should not lose weight in his hand. His garden should smell of rotting apples And grow a fair amount of nettles. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
From life, from the apple cut by the flaming knife, what grain will be saved? My son, believe me, nothing remains, Only adult toil, the furrow of fate in the palm. Only toil, Nothing more. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
When I curse Fate, it's not me, but the earth in me. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
The true enemy of man is generalization. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
What has no shadow has no strength to live. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Language is the only homeland. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Yet falling in love is not the same as being able to love. (Czesław Miłosz)
Irony is the glory of slaves. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself; a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees. View quote
Czesław Miłosz
Every poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before him. At the same time, though, he feels that those old means of expression are not adequate to his own experience. View quote
Czesław Miłosz