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Existentialists are monumentally and monotonously serious they don't like to joke.

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
Existentialists
Monumentally
Monotonously
Existentialist
Joke
Jokes
Serious
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More quotes by Wislawa Szymborska

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I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.
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Even the worst book can give us something to think about.
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Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous I don't know.
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This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.
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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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Somewhere out there the world must have an end.
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At the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn't possible to save mankind.
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Animals don't even try to look any different from what nature intended. They humbly wear their shells, scales, spines, plumes, pelts, and down. ... The conscious impulse to change one's appearance is found only among humans.
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Keep up the good work, if only for a while, if only for the twinkling of a tiny galaxy.
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I don't know the role I'm playing. I only know it's mine, non-convertible.
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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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When I pronounce the word Future, the first syllable already belongs to the past. When I pronounce the word Silence, I destroy it.
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I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.
Wislawa Szymborska
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Carry on, then, if only for the moment that it takes a tiny galaxy to blink!
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Today when two people decide upon a thoughtless and precipitate abbreviation of the physical space between them, they think, at least at that moment, that they're mutually attracted and drawn together by an overwhelming force.
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All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
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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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God was finally going to believe in a man both good and strong, but good and strong are still two different men.
Wislawa Szymborska
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Each of us has a very rich nature and can look at things objectively, from a distance, and at the same time can have something more personal to say about them. I am trying to look at the world, and at myself, from many different points of view. I think many poets have this duality.
Wislawa Szymborska