Wisława Szymborska quotes - page 4

Generally speaking, life is so rich and full of variety; you have to remember all the time that there is a comical side to everything. (Wisława Szymborska)
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. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
They were or they weren't. On an island or not. An ocean or not an ocean Swallowed them up or it didn't. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I am too close for him to dream of me. I don't flutter over him, don't flee him beneath the roots of trees. I am too close. The caught fish doesn't sing with my voice. The ring doesn't roll from my finger. I am too close. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Born. So he was born, too. Born like everyone else. Like me, who will die. The son of an actual woman. A new arrival from the body's depths. A voyager to Omega. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I'm sorry that my voice was hard. Look down on yourselves from the stars, I cried, look down on yourselves from the stars. They heard me and lowered their eyes. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
And only we few who remain unstripped of fur, untorn from bone, unplucked of soaring feathers, esteemed in all our quills, scales, tusks, and horns, and in whatever else that ingenious protein has seen fit to clothe us with, we, my lord, are your dream, which finds you innocent for now. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
So he's got to have happiness, he's got to have truth, too, he's got to have eternity - did you ever! View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I believe in the refusal to take part. I believe in the ruined career. I believe in the wasted years of work. I believe in the secret taken to the grave. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
On this third planet from the sun among the signs of bestiality a clear conscience is Number One. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan. I'm drowning in debts up to my ears. I'll have to pay for myself with my self, give up my life for my life. (Wisława Szymborska)
For the sake of research, the big picture and definitive conclusions, one would have to transcend time, in which everything scurries and whirls. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I'm drowning in papers. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
After every war someone has to tidy up. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
I slide my arm from under the sleeper's head and it is numb, full of swarming pins, on the tip of each, waiting to be counted, the fallen angels sit. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Though I may deny poets their monopoly on inspiration, I still place them in a select group of Fortune's darlings. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words, then labor heavily so that they may seem light. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Something doesn't start at its usual time. Something doesn't happen as it should. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
The window has a wonderful view of a lake, but the view doesn't view itself. (Wisława Szymborska)
Our humans don't know how to talk to one another. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
There's no life that couldn't be immortal if only for a moment. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
Contemporary poets are skeptical and suspicious even, or perhaps especially, about themselves. View quote
Wisława Szymborska
He has only just learned to tell dreams from waking. View quote
Wisława Szymborska