Joseph Brodsky Quotes

Joseph Brodsky
American Poet
Born: May 24, 1940
Died: Jan 28, 1996
About Language Life Poet Time You
Related authors: Edgar Allan Poe Emily Dickinson Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Maya Angelou Ralph Waldo Emerson Robert Frost T. S. Eliot Walt Whitman
An ethical man doesn't need a consensus of his allies in order to act against something he finds reprehensible. Joseph Brodsky
Man Finds Something Allies He His Reprehensible Order Against Ethical Act Consensus Need
Man is what he reads. Joseph Brodsky
Man He Reads
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell. Joseph Brodsky
Book Language Country Prison Russia Writer Put Name Cover His Cell Where Door Plain Appears
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed. Joseph Brodsky
Life You Try Will Miserable Pay Pay Attention Those Attention Well Make Lot Official Capacity Who
One of the worst things that can happen to an artist is to perceive himself as the owner of his art, and art as his tool. A product of the marketplace sensibility, this attitude barely differs on a psychological plane from the patron's view of the artist as a paid employee. Joseph Brodsky
Attitude Art Tool Marketplace Worst Perceive Employee Himself His Owner Artist Happen Psychological Sensibility Patron Plane Barely Product View Paid Things Differs
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic. Joseph Brodsky
Political Criticism Invention Past Own Our Those Though Voice Prophetic Doctrines Sciences Proved Times Blossomed Manageable Same Goes Which Social Ethical Product Social Sciences Appeared Things
Good style in prose is always hostage to the precision, speed, and laconic intensity of poetic diction. Joseph Brodsky
Good Style Speed Poetic Hostage Prose Always Diction Precision Intensity
The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie. Joseph Brodsky
History Lie First Starts Real Consciousness
For a head of state presiding over a ruined economy, an active army with its low wages is god-sent: All he's got to do is provide it with an objective. Joseph Brodsky
Army Active State Ruined Objective He Head Over Economy Got Wages Provide Low
The imprisoning of a writer is the same as the burning of a book. Joseph Brodsky
Book Writer Same Burning
Life - the way it really is - is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse. Joseph Brodsky
Life Good Battle Way Worse Bad Between Really
Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language. Joseph Brodsky
World Language Poet Every Ought Guide At Least One Individual Through Know Yardstick Least Cover Then
Snobbery? But it's only a form of despair. Joseph Brodsky
Snobbery Despair Only Form
I always adhered to the idea that God is time, or at least that His spirit is. Joseph Brodsky
God Time Spirit Idea Always Least His
The blue-collar is not supposed to read Horace, nor the farmer in his overalls Montale or Marvell. Nor, for that matter, is the politician expected to know by heart Gerard Manley Hopkins or Elizabeth Bishop. This is dumb as well as dangerous. Joseph Brodsky
Heart Dangerous Matter Politician Bishop Hopkins Supposed Overalls Know Well Read His Nor Dumb Expected Blue-Collar Farmer Elizabeth
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending. Joseph Brodsky
Future Business Words Living Other Only He Beyond Envisioned Dead Fairly Because Deals Limits Existence Provides Author Unending Infinity In Other Words Regard Cannot Which Prefer Aspect Measure Whole Publishing Palpable
Once I stop being a citizen of the U.S.S.R., I will not stop being a Russian poet. Joseph Brodsky
Will Citizen Poet Once Russian Stop Being
It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union. I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot. Joseph Brodsky
Me You Judge Country Enough System Would Would-Be Leave Versus Soviet Soviet Union Jury Cannot Prefer Union Twelve Basis
For the poet the credo or doctrine is not the point of arrival but is, on the contrary, the point of departure for the metaphysical journey. Joseph Brodsky
Journey Poet On The Contrary Point Doctrine Metaphysical Arrival Contrary Departure
For some odd reason, the expression 'death of a poet' always sounds somewhat more concrete than 'life of a poet.' Joseph Brodsky
Life Death Poet Some More Somewhat Always Concrete Sounds Odd Than Reason Expression
After the last line of a poem, nothing follows except literary criticism. Joseph Brodsky
Criticism Nothing Follows Poem Except Line Literary After Literary Criticism Last
It is almost a rule that the more complex a man is, the simpler his billing. A person with a retrospective ability gone rampant often would be called an historian. Similarly, one to whom reality doesn't seem to make sense gets dubbed a philosopher. Joseph Brodsky
Man Reality Sense Gone Philosopher Rampant Rule Complex Would Would-Be Ability Seem Similarly More Simpler Almost Make Retrospective His Historian Person Gets Often Billing Whom
To put it mildly, nothing can be turned and worn inside out with greater ease than one's notion of social justice, public conscience, a better future, etc. Joseph Brodsky
Future Justice Better Nothing Worn Ease Out Inside Inside-Out Better Future Put Greater Than Etc Public Social Turned Notion Social Justice Conscience
Contrary to popular belief, the outskirts are not where the world ends - they are precisely where it begins to unfurl. Joseph Brodsky
World Contrary Begins Precisely Ends Where Popular Belief
With poets, the choice of words is invariably more telling than the story line; that's why the best of them dread the thought of their biographies being written. Joseph Brodsky
Best Words Thought Dread Telling Invariably More Poets Written Line Than Being Story Them Choice Why Biographies
Unlike life, a work of art never gets taken for granted: it is always viewed against its precursors and predecessors. Joseph Brodsky
Life Work Art Unlike Never Taken Taken For Granted Always Gets Predecessors Against Viewed Granted
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