193 Quotes by Wisława Szymborska

In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone’s existence in this world.

Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle.

Dying – you can’t do that to a cat.

No one feels good at four in the morning. If ants feel good at four in the morning – three cheers for the ants.

Something doesn’t start at its usual time. Something doesn’t happen as it should. Someone was always, always here, then suddenly disappeared and stubbornly stays disappeared.

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

Loveless work, boring work, work valued only because others haven’t got even that much, however loveless and boring – this is one of the harshest human miseries.

I’m old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.

Existentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious; they don’t like to joke.