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Quote by Czeslaw Milosz

“A weak human mercy walks in the corridors of hospitals and is like a half-thawed winter.”

Quote by Czeslaw Milosz

Author

Czeslaw Milosz was a renowned Polish poet, essayist, and translator. Born on June 30, 1911, in Lithuania, he passed away on August 14, 2004. Milosz's poetry is celebrated for its deep exploration of human existence, history, and politics, reflecting the complex history of Poland and Eastern Europe. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1980 for his significant contributions to poetry and prose. more

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“Under various names, I have praised only you, rivers! You are milk and honey and love and death and dance. From a spring in hidden grottoes, seeping from mossy rocks, Where a goddess pours live water from a pitcher, At clear streams in the meadow, where rills murmur underground, Your race and my race begin, and amazement, and quick passage.”

Names Water Race Clear Rocks Spring Rivers And Love Various Streams Honey Passages Milk Goddess Pitcher Meadows Amazement Love And Death Milk And Honey

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“When I die, I will see the lining of the world. The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset.”

World Dies Sides Mountain Bird Sunset

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“And if there is no lining to the world? If a thrush on a branch is not a sign, But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day Make no sense following each other?”

Ifs World Night Following Branches Thrush

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“There was a time when only wise books were read helping us to bear our pain and misery. This, after all, is not quite the same as leafing through a thousand works fresh from psychiatric clinics. And yet the world is different from what it seems to be and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.”

World Book Different Helping Seems Pain Wise Bears Thousand Misery Clinic Psychiatric

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“From life, from the apple cut by the flaming knife, what grain will be saved? My son, believe me, nothing remains, Only adult toil, the furrow of fate in the palm. Only toil, Nothing more.”

Believe Cutting Fate Son Adults Remains Saved Apples My Son Knives Grain Believe In Me Toil Palms

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“They used to pour millet on graves or poppy seeds To feed the dead who would come disguised as birds. I put this book here for you, who once lived So that you should visit us no more.”

Should Book Used Bird Seeds Graves Poppies

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“It isn't pleasant to surrender to the hegemony of a nation which is still wild and primitive, and to concede the absolute superiority of its customs and institutions, science and technology, literature and art. Must one sacrifice so much in the name of the unity of mankind?”

“I was left behind with the immensity of existing things. A sponge, suffering because it cannot saturate itself; a river, suffering because reflections of clouds and trees are not clouds and trees.”

Suffering Left Behinds Tree Reflection Rivers Clouds Left Behind Sponges Immensity

Book:Selected and Last Poems 1931-2004

Source: Selected and Last Poems 1931-2004

“Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees, From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices And the unhurried sounds of a hammer gave joy not only to me. Before the five senses were opened, and earlier than any beginning They waited, ready, for all those who would call themselves mortals, So that they might praise, as I do, life, that is, happiness.”

Might Joy Sound Voice Sun Five Ready Rivers Praise Senses Mortals Echoes Hammers Glowing Afar Lingering Zealous Five Senses Bumblebees

Author:Czeslaw Milosz

“Our memory is childish and it saves only what we need.”

Needs Memories Our Memories

Author:Czeslaw Milosz