English En
  • Deutsche De
  • English En
  • Français Fr
  • Русский Ru

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our marketing and analytics partners who may combine it with other information you've provided to them or which they've separately collected from you. You also may to see our Privacy Policy. By clicking the OK button below, you accept our cookies.

Authors:

Wislawa Szymborska quotes

Polish Poet July 2, 1923 – February 1, 2012

Cite this Page: Citation

Quotes

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
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
Out of a hundred people: Those who always know better- 52 Doubting every step- all the rest Glad to lend a hand if it doesn’t take too long- as high as 49 Always good, because they can’t be otherwise- 4 maybe 5 Able to admire without envy- 18 Living in constant fear of something or someone- 77 Capable of happiness- 20 something tops Harmless singly, savage in crowds- half at least Wise after the fact- just a couple more than wise before it Taking only things from life- 30 (I wish... Wislawa Szymborska
Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work! Wislawa Szymborska
A Note Life is the only way to get covered in leaves, catch your breath on the sand, rise on wings; to be a dog, or stroke its warm fur; to tell pain from everything it's not; to squeeze inside events, dawdle in views, to seek the least of all possible mistakes. An extraordinary chance to remember for a moment a conversation held with the lamp switched off; and if only once to stumble upon a stone, end up soaked in one downpour or another, mislay your keys in the grass; and to follow a spark... Wislawa Szymborska
I have sympathy for young people, for their growing pains, but I balk when these growing pains are pushed into the foreground, when you make these young people the only vehicles of life's wisdom. Wislawa Szymborska
Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation. Wislawa Szymborska
Any knowledge that doesn't lead to new questions quickly dies out: it fails to maintain the temperature required for sustaining life. Wislawa Szymborska
Wislawa Szymborska quote: "I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry...."
I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again. Wislawa Szymborska
Wislawa Szymborska quote: "Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand."
Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand. Wislawa Szymborska
Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."...That is why I value that little phrase "I don't know" so highly. It's small, but it flies on mighty wings. It expands our lives to include spaces within us as well as the outer expanses in which our tiny Earth hangs suspended...Poets, if they're genuine, must always keep repeating "I don't know. Wislawa Szymborska
Wislawa Szymborska quote: "Though I may deny poets their monopoly on inspiration, I still..."
Though I may deny poets their monopoly on inspiration, I still place them in a select group of Fortune's darlings. Wislawa Szymborska
Each of us has a very rich nature and can look at things objectively, from a distance, and at the same time can have something more personal to say about them. I am trying to look at the world, and at myself, from many different points of view. I think many poets have this duality. Wislawa Szymborska
The world - whatever we might think when terrified by its vastness and our own impotence, or embittered by its indifference to individual suffering, of people, animals, and perhaps even plants, for why are we so sure that plants feel no pain; whatever we might think of its expanses pierced by the rays of stars surrounded by planets we've just begun to discover, planets already dead? still dead? we just don't know; whatever we might think of this measureless theater to which we've got reserved... Wislawa Szymborska
When it comes, you’ll be dreaming that you don’t need to breathe; that breathless silence is the music of the dark and it’s part of the rhythm to vanish like a spark. Wislawa Szymborska

Popular Author

Related Authors