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All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.

Wislawa Szymborska

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Wislawa Szymborska
Age: 88 †
Born: 1923
Born: July 2
Died: 2012
Died: February 1
Critic
Essayist
Literary Critic
Mechanic
Poet
Translator
Writer
Kornik
Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska
Szymborska
Small
Funny
Doses
Dose
Imperfection
Served
Tolerate
Easier

More quotes by Wislawa Szymborska

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Get to know other worlds, if only for comparison.
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Out of every hundred people, those who always know better: fifty-two.
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No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses.
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Secret codes resound. Doubts and intentions come to light.
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They say the first sentence in any speech is always the hardest. Well, that one's behind me, anyway.
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I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.
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You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects.
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I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms, so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it.
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Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.
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Whether you want it or not, your genes have a political past, your skin a political tone. your eyes a political color. ... you walk with political steps on political ground.
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In every tragedy, an element of comedy is preserved. Comedy is just tragedy reversed.
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Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
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Sometimes I write quickly, sometimes I spend several weeks on a single poem. I would really love for readers not to be able to guess which of the poems took so much work!
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Poorly prepared for the dignity of life, I barely keep up with the pace of the action imposed. Reality demands.
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I am who I am. A coincidence no less unthinkable than any other.
Wislawa Szymborska
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God was finally going to believe in a man both good and strong, but good and strong are still two different men.
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When I mention somebody, that doesn't necessarily mean that I identify with him, personally or poetically. I'm extremely happy when I encounter poets who are different than I am. The ones who have their own distinct poetics provide me with the greatest experiences.
Wislawa Szymborska
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In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world.
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I cannot speak for more than an hour exclusively about poetry. At that point, life itself takes over again.
Wislawa Szymborska
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No one feels good at four in the morning. If ants feel good at four in the morning —three cheers for the ants.
Wislawa Szymborska