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.
About Joseph Brodsky
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodskywas a Russian and American poet and essayist. Born in Leningradin the Soviet Union, Brodsky ran afoul of Soviet authorities and was expelledfrom the Soviet Union in 1972, settling in the United States with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters.
More quotes from Joseph Brodsky
Life – the way it really is – is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
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.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
How delightful to find a friend in everyone.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Man is what he reads.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Life is a game with many rules but no referee. One learns how to play it more by watching it than by consulting any book, including the holy book. Small wonder, then, that so many play dirty, that so few win, that so many lose.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
It is well to read everything of something, and something of everything.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Who included me among the ranks of the human race?
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
For boredom speaks the language of time, and it is to teach you the most valuable lesson of your life – the lesson of your utter insignificance.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
After 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.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Snobbery? But it’s only a form of despair.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
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.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
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.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Poetry is rather an approach to things, to life, than it is typographical production.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
Bad literature is a form of treason.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
This is the generation whose first cry of life was the Hungarian uprising.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
The real history of consciousness starts with one’s first lie.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)
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.
Russian-American poet (1940-1996)