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If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice. Failing this duty, he sinks into oblivion. Society, on the other hand, has no obligation toward the poet.
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
Choices
Minorities
Society
Obligation
Write
Toward
Hands
Poet
Wells
Choice
Well
Failing
Sinks
Writing
Duty
Oblivion
Hand
Minority
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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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A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.
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I don't have principles. I have nerves.
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I am quite prepared to die here [in NY]. It doesn't matter at all. I don't know better places, or perhaps if I do I am not prepared to make a move.
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The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
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I do not believe in political movements. I believe in personal movement, that movement of the soul when a man who looks at himself is so ashamed that he tries to make some sort of change - within himself, not on the outside.
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If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.
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It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union. I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot.
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In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.
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How delightful to find a friend in everyone.
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Tragedy, as you know, is always a fait accompli, whereas terror always has to do with anticipation, with man's recognition of hisown negative potential--with his sense of what he is capable of.
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I'm neither Catholic not Protestant. Protestant sounds good but I don't think I am.
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On the whole, love comes with the speed of light separation, with that of sound.
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For the poet the credo or doctrine is not the point of arrival but is, on the contrary, the point of departure for the metaphysical journey.
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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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Bad literature is a form of treason.
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