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Czesław Miłosz QUOTES

Czesław Miłosz QUOTES

1 " Learning

To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life. "

― Czesław Miłosz

2 " In a room where
people unanimously maintain
a conspiracy of silence,
one word of truth
sounds like a pistol shot. "

― Czesław Miłosz

3 " Men will clutch at illusions when they have nothing else to hold to. "

― Czesław Miłosz

4 " The purpose of poetry is to remind us
how difficult it is to remain just one person,
for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors,
and invisible guests come in and out at will. "

― Czesław Miłosz

5 " You see how I try
To reach with words
What matters most
And how I fail. "

― Czesław Miłosz

6 " It is sweet to think I was a companion in an expedition that never ends "

― Czesław Miłosz

7 " No duties. I don’t have to be profound.
I don’t have to be artistically perfect.
Or sublime. Or edifying.
I just wander. I say: ‘You were running,
That’s fine. It was the thing to do.’
And now the music of the worlds transforms me.
My planet enters a different house.
Trees and lawns become more distinct.
Philosophies one after another go out.
Everything is lighter yet not less odd.
Sauces, wine vintages, dishes of meat.
We talk a little of district fairs,
Of travels in a covered wagon with a cloud of dust behind,
Of how rivers once were, what the scent of calamus is.
That’s better than examining one’s private dreams.
And meanwhile it has arrived. It’s here, invisible.
Who can guess how it got here, everywhere.
Let others take care of it. Time for me to play hooky.
Buena notte. Ciao. Farewell. "

― Czesław Miłosz

8 " In the very essence of poetry there is something indecent; A thing brought forth that we didn't know we had in us, So we blink our eyes, as if a tiger had sprung out And stood in the light, licking its tail. "

― Czesław Miłosz

9 " I have defined poetry as a 'passionate pursuit of the Real. "

― Czesław Miłosz

10 " The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person... "

― Czesław Miłosz

11 " A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged. "

― Czesław Miłosz

12 " 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. "

― Czesław Miłosz

13 " I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A river, suffering because reflections of clouds and tress and not clouds and trees. "

― Czesław Miłosz

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

― Czesław Miłosz , The Separate Notebooks

15 " Reality calls for a name, for words, but it is unbearable, and if it is touched, if it draws very close, the poet’s mouth cannot even utter a complaint of Job: all art proves to be nothing compared with action. Yet to embrace reality in such a manner that it is preserved in all its old tangle of good and evil, of despair and hope, is possible only thanks to distance, only by soaring above it--but this in turn seems then a moral treason. "

― Czesław Miłosz

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

― Czesław Miłosz , The Issa Valley

17 " Language is the only homeland. "

― Czesław Miłosz

18 " 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. "

― Czesław Miłosz

19 " 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. "

― Czesław Miłosz

20 " 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. "

― Czesław Miłosz