131 Quotes by Czesław Miłosz

I was driven because I wanted to be like others.I was afraid of what was wild and indecent in me.

No, non imiterò mai coloro che cancellano le proprie tracce, ripudiano il proprio passato e sono morti, anche se con equilibrismi intellettuali fanno finta di essere vivi. Le mie radici sono laggiù, all’Est, su questo non v’è alcun dubbio. Anche se trovo difficile e spiacevole spiegare chi sono, bisogna pur tentare di farlo.

[…] alla fin fine, bisogna saper apprezzare i vantaggi che si traggono dalle proprie origini.

How to resist nothingness? What powerPreserves what once was, if memory does not last?For I remember little. I remember so very little.

Language is the only homeland.

Horror is the law of the world of living creatures, and civilization is concerned with masking that truth. Literature and art refine and beautify, and if they were to depict reality naked, just as everyone suspects it is (although we defend ourselves against that knowledge), no one would be able to stand it.

And what if Pascal had not been savedand if those narrow hands in which we laid a crossare just he, entire, like a lifeless swallowin the dust, under the buzz of the poisonous-blue flies? And if they all, kneeling with poised palms,millions, billions of them, ended together with their illusion?I shall never agree. I will give them the crown.The human mind is splendid; lips powerful,and the summons so great it must open Paradise.

The work of human thought should withstand the test of brutal, naked reality. If it cannot, it is worthless. Probably only those things are worthwhile which can preserve their validity in the eyes of a man threatened with instant death.

[…] perché esistono dei mostri che nessuno può vincere in un combattimento faccia a faccia.