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Racism? But isn't it only a form of misanthropy?

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
Misanthropy
Racism
Race
Form

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The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with.
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Because every book of art, be it a poem or a cupola, is understandably a self-portrait of its author, we won't strain ourselves too hard trying to distinguish between the author's persona and the poem's lyrical hero. As a rule, such distinctions are quite meaningless, if only because a lyrical hero is invariably an author's self-projection.
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In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.
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The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie.
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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 they had wanted to punish me, they should have kept me in a communal apartment. Then I would have become a wreck.
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I got caught up in the proletariat the way Marx describes it.
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Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. Even your super weirdo creep cousin.
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I'm neither Catholic not Protestant. Protestant sounds good but I don't think I am.
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I don't have principles. I have nerves.
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Who included me among the ranks of the human race?
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Language and, presumably, literature are more ancient and inevitable, more durable than any form of social organization. The revulsion, irony, or indifference often expressed by literature toward the state is essentially the reaction of the permanent-better yet, the infinite-against the temporary, against the finite.
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The Constitution doesn't mention rain.
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I didn't want to be either the cre`me de la cre`me or a martyr. I'd rather be a novelty, especially in a democracy that doesn't understand the language I write in.
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Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair.
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For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
Joseph Brodsky
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The delirium and horror of the East. The dusty catastrophe of Asia. Green only on the banner of the Prophet. Nothing grows here except mustaches.
Joseph Brodsky
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When I'm not writing or reading, I'm thinking about both.
Joseph Brodsky
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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.
Joseph Brodsky
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Every life has a file, if you will.
Joseph Brodsky