Quote

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.

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
Culture
Oneself
Given
Terms
Three
Lies
Two
Honest
Creed
Firsts
Term
Creeds
First
Race
Coward
Things
Lying
Ambitious
Men
Whether
Define

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Every life has a file, if you will.
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After having exhausted all the arguments on behalf of evil, one utters the creed's dictums with nostalgia rather than with fervor.
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For darkness restores what light cannot repair.
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Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family. Even your super weirdo creep cousin.
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In the West you have every opportunity for civilization to triumph.
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I got caught up in the proletariat the way Marx describes it.
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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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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 grew up in the sort of cultural milieu that always regarded conversations about the political discourse as tremendously low-brow.
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If I can get somewhere, I'm all right. If not, I'm miserable.
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An object, after all, is what makes infinity private.
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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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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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In general, with things unpleasant, the rule is: The sooner you hit bottom, the faster you surface.
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I don't have principles. I have nerves.
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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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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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Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair.
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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 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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