Wisława Szymborska quotes - page 2

Wisława Szymborska was a renowned Polish poet, essayist, and translator, celebrated for her insightful and ironic poetry. Her work explores philosophical themes, everyday life, and the complexities of human existence. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her outstanding contributions to world poetry. Here are 153 of her quotes:

I like being near the top of a mountain. One can't get lost here.

Wisława Szymborska

The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand.

Wisława Szymborska

Poetic talent doesn't operate in a vacuum. There is a spirit of Polish poetry.

Wisława Szymborska

All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.

Wisława Szymborska

I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.

Wisława Szymborska

My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs. My apologies to great questions for small answers.

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?

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.

Wisława Szymborska

Dying - you can't do that to a cat.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Wisława Szymborska

They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone. They don't have to be seen while sailing on.

Wisława Szymborska

My dreams - even they're not as populous as they should be. They hold more solitude than noisy crowds.

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.

Wisława Szymborska

Our stockpile of antiquity grows constantly.

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.

Wisława Szymborska

Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists.

Wisława Szymborska

They were neither good nor evil now - every living thing was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.

Wisława Szymborska

Only what is human can truly be foreign.

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.

Wisława Szymborska