Quote

I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees.

Czeslaw Milosz

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Czeslaw Milosz
Age: 93 †
Born: 1911
Born: June 30
Died: 2004
Died: August 14
Diplomat
Essayist
Pedagogue
Poet
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Clarksburg
West Virginia
Miłosz
Czelaw Milosz
River
Suffering
Left
Trees
Saturate
Cannot
Clouds
Sponge
Things
Reflection
Sponges
Rivers
Reflections
Behinds
Immensity
Behind
Existing
Tree

More quotes by Czeslaw Milosz

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What has no shadow has no strength to live.
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Men will clutch at illusions when they have nothing else to hold to.
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It was only toward the middle of the twentieth century that the inhabitants of many European countries came, in general unpleasantly, to the realization that their fate could be influenced directly by intricate and abstruse books of philosophy.
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A man should not love the moon. An ax should not lose weight in his hand. His garden should smell of rotting apples, And grow a fair amount of nettles.
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You see how I try To reach with words What matters most And how I fail.
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All of us yearn for the highest wisdom, but we have to rely on ourselves in the end.
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When I curse Fate, it's not me, but the earth in me.
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Language is the only homeland.
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The soul exceeds its circumstances.
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What is poetry which does not save nations or people?
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I imagine the earth when I am no more: Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley. Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born, Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.
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The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person.
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From life, from the apple cut by the flaming knife, what grain will be saved? My son, believe me, nothing remains, Only adult toil, the furrow of fate in the palm. Only toil, Nothing more.
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The revolt against one's environment is usually 'shame' of one's environment.
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Forget the suffering You caused others. Forget the suffering Others caused you. The waters run and run, Springs sparkle and are done, You walk the earth you are forgetting.
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It is sweet to think I was a companion in an expedition that never ends
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They used to pour millet on graves or poppy seeds To feed the dead who would come disguised as birds. I put this book here for you, who once lived So that you should visit us no more.
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The true enemy of man is generalization.
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The child who dwells inside us trusts that there are wise men somewhere who know the truth.
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Human reason is beautiful and invincible. No bars, no barbed wire, no pulping of books, No sentence of banishment can prevail against it. It puts what should be above things as they are. It does not know Jew from Greek nor slave from master.
Czeslaw Milosz