Wisława Szymborska

I'm old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised.

When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.
When I pronounce the word nothing,
I make something no nonbeing can hold.

Let the people who never find true love
keep saying that there's no such thing.
Their faith will make it easier for them to live and die.

The joy of writing.
The power of preserving.
Revenge of a mortal hand.

Every beginning, after all, is nothing but a sequel, and the book of events is always open in the middle.

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

At the very beginning of my creative life I loved humanity. I wanted to do something good for mankind. Soon I understood that it isn’t possible to save mankind.

Such certainty is beautiful, but uncertainty is more beautiful still.

I am who I am.
A coincidence no less unthinkable
than any other.

When it comes, you’ll be dreaming
that you don’t need to breathe;
that breathless silence is
the music of the dark
and it’s part of the rhythm
to vanish like a spark.