Czeslaw Milosz Quotes

In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.

The living owe it to those who no longer can speak to tell their story for them.

Religion used to be the opium of the people. To those suffering humiliation, pain, illness, and serfdom, religion promised the reward of an after life. But now, we are witnessing a transformation, a true opium of the people is the belief in nothingness after death, the huge solace, the huge comfort of thinking that for our betrayals, our greed, our cowardice, our murders, we are not going to be judged.

The voice of passion is better than the voice of reason. The passionless cannot change history.

The purpose of poetry is to remind us how difficult it is to remain just one person, for our house is open, there are no keys in the doors, and invisible guests come in and out at will.

The true enemy of man is generalization.

Evil grows and bears fruit, which is understandable, because it has logic and probability on its side and also, of course, strength. The resistance of tiny kernels of good, to which no one grants the power of causing far-reaching consequences, is entirely mysterious, however. Such seeming nothingness not only lasts but contains within itself enormous energy which is revealed gradually.

The soul exceeds its circumstances.

What has no shadow has no strength to live.

I think that I am here, on this earth, to present a report on it, but to whom I don't know. As if I were sent so that whatever takes place has meaning because it changes into memory.

Men will clutch at illusions when they have nothing else to hold to.

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.

A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.

All of us yearn for the highest wisdom, but we have to rely on ourselves in the end.

The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.

Language is the only homeland.

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose.

Be young forever, seasons of the earth.

At every sunrise I renounce the doubts of night and greet the new day of a most precious delusion.

The purpose of poetry is to remind us / how difficult it is to remain just one person.

Love means to look at yourself The way one looks at distant things For you are only one thing among many.

The child who dwells inside us trusts that there are wise men somewhere who know the truth.

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed, the date.

All was taken away from you: white dresses, wings, even existence. Yet I believe you, messengers. There, where the world is turned inside out, a heavy fabric embroidered with stars and beasts, you stroll, inspecting the trustworthy seams.

Poetry is news brought to the mountains by a unicorn and an echo.