Wislawa Szymborska Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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.

  47 Copy quote

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

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Writing, Writing Poems, Absurdity

  Wislawa Szymborska, “Possibilities”

  73 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

  45 Copy quote

• 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

  62 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

  6 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

  35 Copy quote

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

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Cosmos, Remarkable, Objects

  52 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

  20 Copy quote

• And whatever I do will become forever what I've done.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Forever, Done

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Map: Collected and Last Poems”, p.229, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  14 Copy quote

• 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

  47 Copy quote

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

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Order, Chaos, Hell

  Wislawa Szymborska, “Possibilities”

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  18 Copy quote

• 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

  42 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

  39 Copy quote

• 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

  36 Copy quote

• Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Other Worlds, Knows, Ifs

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “View with a Grain of Sand: Selected Poems”, p.223, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  33 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

  44 Copy quote

• I am who I am. A coincidence no less unthinkable than any other.

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Who I Am, I Am Who I Am, Coincidence

  Wislawa Szymborska (2015). “Poems New and Collected”, p.267, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  10 Copy quote

• 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

  24 Copy quote

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

  Wislawa Szymborska

  Tragedy, Elements, Comedy

  23 Copy quote

• 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

  20 Copy quote

• 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

  31 Copy quote

• 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

  17 Copy quote

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