Quote

Robert Frost's triumph was not being at John Kennedy's inauguration ceremony, but the day when he put the last period on West-Running Brook.

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
Last
Robert
Running
Ceremony
Triumph
John
Brook
Period
Inauguration
Periods
Brooks
West
Frost
Lasts
Kennedy

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A man should know about himself two or three things: whether he is a coward whether he is an honest man or given to lies whether he is an ambitious man. One should define oneself first of all in those terms, and only then in terms of culture, race, creed.
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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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If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.
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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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How delightful to find a friend in everyone.
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For darkness restores what light cannot repair.
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A poet is a combination of an instrument and a human being in one person, with the former gradually taking over the latter. The sensation of this takeover is responsible for timbre the realization of it, for destiny.
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An object, after all, is what makes infinity private.
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Every life has a file, if you will.
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I got caught up in the proletariat the way Marx describes it.
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Who included me among the ranks of the human race?
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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 general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.
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My poems getting published in Russia doesn't make me feel in any fashion, to tell you the truth. I'm not trying to be coy, but it doesn't tickle my ego.
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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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A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.
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I was quite happy in Arkhangelsk.Subsequently, I was sent to a village. I liked it in its own way because it sounded to me very much like the tradition of a hired man in any world-class poem. That's what I was, a hired man. I was working for a collective farm.
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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 don't have principles. I have nerves.
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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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