Wisława Szymborska Quotes

92 Sourced Quotes

What does the world get from two people/who exist in a world of their own?

Wisława Szymborska
There is so much Everything
that Nothing is hidden quite nicely

Wisława Szymborska
They say the first love's most important. That's very romantic, but not my experience.

Wisława Szymborska
Toy balloon
once kidnapped by the wind —
come home, and I will say:
There are no children here.

Wisława Szymborska
On this third planet from the sun
among the signs of bestiality
a clear conscience is Number One.

Wisława Szymborska
Something doesn't start
at its usual time.
Something doesn't happen
as it should.
Someone was always, always here,
then suddenly disappeared
and stubbornly stays disappeared.

Wisława Szymborska
Secret codes resound.
Doubts and intentions come to light.

Wisława Szymborska
This terrifying world is not devoid of charms, of the mornings that make waking up worthwhile.

Wisława Szymborska
He's no end of fun, for all you say.
Poor little beggar.
A human, if ever we saw one.

Wisława Szymborska
No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses.

Wisława Szymborska
God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.

Wisława Szymborska
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.

Wisława Szymborska
Few of them made it to thirty.
Old age was the privilege of rocks and trees.
Childhood ended as fast as wolf cubs grow.
One had to hurry, to get on with life
before the sun went down,
before the first snow.

Wisława Szymborska
We call it a grain of sand
but it calls itself neither grain nor sand.
It does just fine without a name,
whether general, particular,
permanent, passing,
incorrect or apt.

Wisława Szymborska
If there are angels
they must, I hope,
find this convincing,
this merriment dangling from terror,
not even crying Save me Save me
since all of this takes place in silence.

Wisława Szymborska
Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know.

Wisława Szymborska
They aren't obliged to vanish when we're gone.
They don't have to be seen while sailing on.

Wisława Szymborska
My siblings died the day I left for dry land
and only one small bone recalls that anniversary in me.

Wisława Szymborska
I remember it so clearly —
how people, seeing me, would break off in midword.
Laughter died.
Lovers' hands unclasped.
Children ran to their mothers.
I didn't even know their short-lived names.
And that song about a little green leaf —
no one ever finished it near me.

Wisława Szymborska
Our stockpile of antiquity grows constantly,
it's overflowing,
reckless squatters jostle for a place in history,
hordes of sword fodder,
Hector's nameless extras, no less brave than he,
thousands upon thousands of singular faces,
each the first and last for all time,
in each a pair of inimitable eyes.
How easy it was to live not knowing this,
so sentimental, so spacious.

Wisława Szymborska
"Whose side are you on?" "I don't know."
"This is a war, you've got to choose." "I don't know."
"Does your village still exist?" "I don't know."
"Are those your children?" "Yes."

Wisława Szymborska
Loveless work, boring work, work valued only because others haven't got even that much, however loveless and boring—this is one of the harshest human miseries.

Wisława Szymborska
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.

Wisława Szymborska
So he's got to have happiness,
he's got to have truth, too,
he's got to have eternity —
did you ever!

Wisława Szymborska
My dreams — even they're not as populous as they should be.
They hold more solitude than noisy crowds.

Wisława Szymborska
Here we are, naked lovers,
beautiful to each other—and that's enough.
The leaves of our eyelids our only covers,
we're lying amidst deep night.

Wisława Szymborska
I felt age within me. Distance.
The futility of wandering. Torpor.
I looked back setting my bundle down.
I looked back not knowing where to set my foot.
Serpents appeared on my path,
spiders, field mice, baby vultures.
They were neither good nor evil now — every living thing
was simply creeping or hopping along in the mass panic.

Wisława Szymborska
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.

Wisława Szymborska
Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice.

Wisława Szymborska
Yes, she loved him very much. Yes, he was born that way.
Yes, she was standing by the prison wall that morning.
Yes, she heard the shots.
You may regret not having brought a camera,
a tape recorder. Yes, she has seen such things.

Wisława Szymborska