Joseph Brodsky Quotes

Joseph Brodsky
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
I do not believe in political movements. I believe in personal movement, that movement of the soul when a man who looks at himself is so ashamed that he tries to make some sort of change - within himself, not on the outside. Joseph Brodsky
Man Change Soul Political Believe Tries Some Outside He Looks Make Himself Sort Within Personal Movement Movements Ashamed Who
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
I simply loved all my life; loved is too strong a word, but I had a tremendous sentiment, partly conditioned, of course, by the reality of where I grew up, for the spirit of individualism, for the idea of your being on your own in a big way. Joseph Brodsky
Life Reality Strong Word My Life Big Own Sentiment Too Tremendous Way All My Life Spirit Had Individualism Simply Idea Partly Course Conditioned Up Being Where Grew Big Way Loved Your
No matter how daring or cautious you may choose to be, in the course of your life, you are bound to come into direct physical contact with what's known as Evil. I mean here not a property of the gothic novel but, to say the least, a palpable social reality that you in no way can control. Joseph Brodsky
Life You Property Reality Matter Evil Control Way Say Daring Physical Direct Contact Bound Come Known Course How Gothic Least Cautious May Mean Social Your Choose Novel Palpable Here
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
In order to live in a different country, you have to love something there. You have to love something there. You have to love either the spirit of the laws or the economic opportunities, or the - well, history of the country, the language perhaps, literature. Joseph Brodsky
Love History You Opportunities Language Country Live Spirit Something Laws Economic Economic Opportunities Perhaps Well Different Order Either Literature To Love
How delightful to find a friend in everyone. Joseph Brodsky
Friendship Everyone Find Delightful How Friend
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
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man. Joseph Brodsky
Work Alone Time Myself Nature Me Man Summarize Enterprise Prompted Only Main Most Himself Because However Were His Interest Capable Interests Hard Assess Hardship Basically
I started to write when I was eighteen or nineteen. However, until I was about twenty-three, I didn't take it that seriously. Joseph Brodsky
Seriously Nineteen About Write Take Until However Eighteen Started
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
This is the generation whose first cry of life was the Hungarian uprising. Joseph Brodsky
Life Generation First Hungarian Cry Uprising Whose
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
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