Quote

After all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life.

Joseph Brodsky

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Joseph Brodsky
Age: 55 †
Born: 1940
Born: May 24
Died: 1996
Died: January 25
Author
Dramaturge
Essayist
Playwright
Poet
Translator
Writer
St. Petersburg
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky
Wells
Well
Equally
Hard
Bound
Work
Fake
Life
Bounds
Master
Masters
Better

More quotes by Joseph Brodsky

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In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.
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The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
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The government, the state, they're just objects of jokes rather than serious consideration. I can't possibly take them seriously.
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If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.
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For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
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I'm not trying to be ridiculous or funny, but it was rather pleasant to find yourself in isolation, in solitary.
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There's nothing as dear as the sight of ruins.
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Every life has a file, if you will.
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Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair.
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Bad literature is a form of treason.
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On the whole, love comes with the speed of light separation, with that of sound.
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Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse
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When the eye fails to find beauty-alias solace-it commands the body to create it, or, failing that, adjusts itself to perceive virtue in ugliness.
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I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out which is worse the dark inside, or the darkness out.
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Racism? But isn't it only a form of misanthropy?
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As failures go, attempting to recall the past is like trying to grasp the meaning of existence. Both make one feel like a baby clutching at a basketball: one's palms keep sliding off.
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Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. Even your super weirdo creep cousin.
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Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium. It is your window on time's infinity. Once this window opens, don't try to shut it on the contrary, throw it wide open.
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I grew up in the sort of cultural milieu that always regarded conversations about the political discourse as tremendously low-brow.
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I don't believe in that country any longer. I'm not interested. I'm writing in the language, and I like the language.
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