Wisława Szymborska quotes - page 2

It's just not easy to explain to someone else what you don't understand yourself. (Wisława Szymborska)
I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs. My apologies to great questions for small answers. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Whose side are you on?" "I don't know." "This is a war, you've got to choose." "I don't know." "Does your village still exist?" "I don't know." "Are those your children? View quote
Wisława Szymborska
There's no life that couldn't be immortal if only for a moment.Death always arrives by that very moment too late.In vain it tugs at the knob of the invisible door. As far as you've come can't be undone. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Dying - you can't do that to a cat. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Show me your little poem and I'll tell you why it wasn't written any earlier or later than it was.Oh no, you've got me wrong. Keep your funny piece of paper with its scribbles. All I need for my ends is your layer of dirt and the long gone smell of burning. (Wisława Szymborska)
I shake my memory. Maybe something in its branches that has been asleep for years will start up with a flutter.No. Clearly I'm asking too much. Nothing less than one whole second. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
He feels like a handle broken off a jug, but the jug doesn't know it's broken and keeps going to the well. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
If there are angels they must, I hope, find this convincing, this merriment dangling from terror, not even crying Save me Save me since all of this takes place in silence. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I knock at the stone's front door. "It's only me, let me come in.""I don't have a door," says the stone. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone. They don't have to be seen while sailing on. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
My dreams - even they're not as populous as they should be. They hold more solitude than noisy crowds. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Here we are, naked lovers, beautiful to each other-and that's enough. The leaves of our eyelids our only covers, we're lying amidst deep night. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Our stockpile of antiquity grows constantly. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
After every war someone has to tidy up. Things won't pick themselves up, after all.Someone has to shove the rubble to the roadsides so the carts loaded with corpses can get by. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
This adult male. This person on earth. Ten billion nerve cells. Ten pints of blood pumped by ten ounces of heart. This object took three billion years to emerge. (Wisława Szymborska)
Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
They were neither good nor evil now - every living thing was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Only what is human can truly be foreign. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Within him, there's awful darkness, in the darkness a small boy. God of humor, do something about him, OK? God of humor, do something about him today. View quote
Wisława Szymborska