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
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
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
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
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
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
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
On the whole, books are indeed less finite than ourselves. Even the worst among them outlast their authors - mainly because they occupy a smaller amount of physical space than those who penned them. Often they sit on the shelves absorbing dust long after the writer himself has turned into a handful of dust. Joseph Brodsky
Space Long Sit Dust Books Indeed Those Worst Ourselves Physical Outlast Finite Writer Absorb Smaller Mainly Himself Because Occupy Shelves Handful Than Authors Often After Them Turned Less Who Whole Even Among Amount
Of course there is no denying the possible pleasure of holing up with a fat, slow-moving, mediocre novel; still, we all know that we can indulge ourselves in that fashion only so much. In the end, we read not for reading's sake, but to learn. Joseph Brodsky
Fashion Reading Pleasure Ourselves Possible Only Indulge Know Learn Read Course Still Sake End Up Denying In The End Much Novel Fat Mediocre
Prison is essentially a shortage of space made up for by a surplus of time; to an inmate, both are palpable. Joseph Brodsky
Time Space Made Prison Both Surplus Up Essentially Shortage Inmate Palpable
No man-made system is perfect, and the system of oppression is no exception. It is subject to fatigue, to cracks, which you are the likelier to discover the longer your term. Joseph Brodsky
You Oppression Fatigue System No Exception Perfect Exception Longer Term Discover Subject Man-Made Cracks Which Your
It's a maddening thing in itself to look at an old poem of yours. To translate it is even more maddening. Joseph Brodsky
Old Maddening Poem More Look Itself Translate Yours Even Thing
The career of an esthete was nothing I ever intended. Joseph Brodsky
Nothing Intended Ever Career
Poetry isn't just different from prose, it's more important for the human species. Joseph Brodsky
Important More Poetry Prose Human Just Different Human Species Species
Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people. Joseph Brodsky
Culture People Nation Poems Novels Things Belong
Art is a spirit seeking flesh but finding words. Joseph Brodsky
Art Words Finding Spirit Seeking Flesh
There is nothing odder than to apply an analytical device to a synthetic phenomenon: for instance, to write in English about a Russian poet. Joseph Brodsky
Poet Nothing Analytical Synthetic About Russian Write Instance Device Than English Apply Phenomenon

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