Joseph BrodskyA language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.351Politics
Joseph BrodskyWhat concerns me is that man, unable to articulate, to express himself adequately, reverts to action. Since the vocabulary of action is limited, as it were, to his body, he is bou… ▶353Humanity
Joseph BrodskyThere's nothing as dear as the sight of ruins.342Thought
Joseph BrodskyAfter all, it is hard to master both life and work equally well. So if you are bound to fake one of them, it had better be life. ✨ Joseph Brodsky, Cynthia L. Haven (2002). J… ▶375Life
Joseph BrodskyIt 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 … ▶354Love
Joseph BrodskyLife—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse366Life
Joseph Brodsky...in the business of writing what one accumulates is not expertise but uncertainties. Which is but another name for craft.356Politics
Joseph BrodskyOn the whole, love comes with the speed of light; separation, with that of sound. ✨ Joseph Brodsky (2013). Watermark: An Essay on Venice, p.47, Penguin UK367Love
Joseph BrodskySnobbery? But it's only a form of despair.345Truth
Joseph BrodskyEvery 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.358Thought
Joseph BrodskyMan is what he reads.325Reading
Joseph BrodskyIn the end, like the Almighty Himself, we make everything in our image, for want of a more reliable model; our artifacts tell more about ourselves than our confessions.336Truth
Joseph BrodskyThe Constitution doesn't mention rain.359Hope
Joseph BrodskyJudge: And what is your occupation in general? Brodsky: Poet, poet-translator. Judge: And who recognized you to be a poet? Who put you in the ranks of poet? Brodsky: No one. And w… ▶3510HumanityThought
Joseph BrodskyBecause every book of art, be it a poem or a cupola, is understandably a self-portrait of its author, we won't strain ourselves too hard trying to distinguish between the author's… ▶284PhilosophyReading
Joseph BrodskyThe fact that we are living does not mean we are not sick.296LifeTruth
Joseph BrodskyEvery writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more… ▶286Love
Joseph BrodskyRacism? But isn't it only a form of misanthropy?243Truth
Joseph BrodskyThe surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked… ▶3110ThoughtTime
Joseph BrodskyNo matter under what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be home. No matter how you lived there - well or poorly.298Death
Joseph BrodskyPoetry is what is gained in translation. ✨ Raw Material by Derek Mahon - review by Aingeal Clare, www.theguardian.com. February 3, 2012.287Reflection
Joseph BrodskyThe poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.221Humanity
Joseph BrodskyFor a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.265Death
Joseph BrodskyFor darkness restores what light cannot repair. ✨ Picador New Writing. Vol. 3-4. Book by Drusilla Modjeska, Beth Yahp (p. 13), 1995.244Reading
Joseph BrodskyHow delightful to find a friend in everyone.233Humor
Joseph BrodskyTwentieth-century Russian literature has produced nothing special except perhaps one novel and two stories by Andrei Platonov, who ended his days sweeping streets.211Reading
Joseph BrodskyWho included me among the ranks of the human race?201Humanity
Joseph BrodskyBoredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium. It is your window on time's infinity. Once this window o… ▶2810Time
Joseph BrodskyThe eye identifies itself not with the body it belongs to but with the object of its attention.213Life
Joseph BrodskyThis is the generation whose first cry of life was the Hungarian uprising.279LifeSadness
