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I'm neither Catholic not Protestant. Protestant sounds good but I don't think I am.

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
Think
Thinking
Protestant
Protestants
Sounds
Catholic
Neither
Sound
Good

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The fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.
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Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul.
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I don't have principles. I have nerves.
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There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.
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Poetry is what is gained in translation.
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In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.
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On the whole, love comes with the speed of light separation, with that of sound.
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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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The Constitution doesn't mention rain.
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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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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.
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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.
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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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Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe ... that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens.
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The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie.
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If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.
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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.
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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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The eye identifies itself not with the body it belongs to but with the object of its attention.
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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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