131 Quotes by Czesław Miłosz

Professional Ketman is reasoned thus: since I find myself in circumstances over which I have no control, and since I have but one life and that is fleeting, I should strive to do my best. I am like a crustacean attached to a crag on the bottom of the sea. Over me storms rage and huge ships sail; but my entire effort is concentrated upon clinging to the rock, for otherwise I will be carried off by the waters and perish, leaving no trace behind.

Kad nusinuodytum žiurknuodžiais, reikia prarasti bet kokią viltį ir drauge visiškai pasiduoti savo mintims, tada jos užstoja visą pasaulį ir žmogus ničnieko neberegi, išskyrus savo likimą.

The bright side of the planet moves toward darknessAnd the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,And for me, now as then, it is too much.There is too much world.

Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year, I felt a door opening in me and I entered the clarity of early morning. One after another my former lives were departing, like ships, together with their sorrow. And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas assigned to my brush came closer, ready now to be described better than they were before.

Since poetry deals with the singular, not the general, it cannot - if it is good poetry - look at things of this earth other than as colorful, variegated, and exciting, and so, it cannot reduce life, with all its pain, horror, suffering, and ecstasy, to a unified tonality of boredom and complaint. By necessity poetry is therefore on the side of being and against nothingness.

Regret, to no end, in every hourOf a long life. What beautiful workWill redeem the heartbeats of a living creatureAnd what use to confess deeds that last forever?

Since that moment when in a house with low eavesA doctor from the town cut the navel-stringAnd pears dotted with white mildewReposed in their nests of luxurious weedsI have been in the hands of humans.

The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.

In a room wherepeople unanimously maintaina conspiracy of silence,one word of truthsounds like a pistol shot.