131 Quotes by Czesław Miłosz

All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence.

Destruction and suffering are the school of social thought.

Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation, a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.

This I wanted and nothing more. In my old agelike old Goethe to stand before the face of the earth,and recognize it and reconcile itwith my work built up, a forest citadelon a river of changeable lights and brief shadows.

If I had to tell what the world is for meI would take a hamster or a hedgehog or a moleand place him in a theatre seat one eveningand, bringing my ear close to his humid snout,would listen to what he says about the spotlights,sounds of the music, and movements of the dance.

Had Beta been French, perhaps he would've been an existentialist, probably though that would not have satisfied him.He smiled contemptuously at mental speculations, for he remembered seeing philosophers fighting over garbage in the concentration camps.Human thought had no significance; subterfuge and self-deception were easy to decipher: all that really counted was the movement of matter.

Poetry is an attempt to penetrate the dense reality to find a place where the simplest things look as new as through the eyes of a child.

If there is no God,Not everything is permitted to man.He is still his brother's keeperAnd he is not permitted to sadden his brother,By saying there is no God.

The creative act of the artist lifts him above himself by demanding full surrender. No one puts words on paper or paint on canvas, doubting. If one doubts, one does so five minutes later...