Czeslaw Milosz

The child who dwells inside us trusts that there are wise men somewhere who know the truth.

— Czeslaw Milosz

We have become indifferent to content, and react, not even to form, but to technique, to technical efficiency itself.

— Czeslaw Milosz

“And Yet the Books And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings, That appeared once, still wet As…

— Czeslaw Milosz

“When someone is honestly 55 percent right, that’s very good and there’s no use wrangling. And if someone is 60 percent right,…

— Czeslaw Milosz

“The worst possible sexual education: a taboo imposed by the Catholic church plus romantic literature elevating love to unreal heights plus the…

— Czeslaw Milosz

And if there is no lining to the world? If a thrush on a branch is not a sign, But just a…

— Czeslaw Milosz

At every sunrise I renounce the doubts of night and greet the new day of a most precious delusion.

— Czeslaw Milosz

The soul exceeds its circumstances.

— Czeslaw Milosz

I imagine the earth when I am no more: Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley. Yet the books will…

— Czeslaw Milosz

There was a time when only wise books were read helping us to bear our pain and misery. This, after all, is…

— Czeslaw Milosz

If I am all mankind, are they themselves without me?

— Czeslaw Milosz

“In the very essence of poetry there is something indecent; A thing brought forth that we didn't know we had in us,…

— Czeslaw Milosz

Consolation Calm down. Both your sins and your good deeds will be lost in oblivion.

— Czeslaw Milosz

I am composed of contradictions, which is why poetry is a better form for me than philosophy

— Czeslaw Milosz

Every poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before…

— Czeslaw Milosz

At the entrance, my bare feet on the dirt floor, Here, gusts of heat; at my back, white clouds. I stare and…

— Czeslaw Milosz

Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet Yet is not a prophet, for he's much too busy, Repeats while…

— Czeslaw Milosz

Leaves glowing in the sun, zealous hum of bumblebees, From afar, from somewhere beyond the river, echoes of lingering voices And the…

— Czeslaw Milosz

“Sceptical Ketman is widely disseminated throughout intellectual circles. One argues that humanity does not know how to handle its knowledge or how…

— Czeslaw Milosz

Yet falling in love is not the same as being able to love.

— Czeslaw Milosz

It was only toward the middle of the twentieth century that the inhabitants of many European countries came, in general unpleasantly, to…

— Czeslaw Milosz

The revolt against one's environment is usually 'shame' of one's environment.

— Czeslaw Milosz

The history of my stupidity would fill many volumes.

— Czeslaw Milosz

Do not feel safe. The poet remembers. You can kill one, but another is born. The words are written down, the deed,…

— Czeslaw Milosz

A man should not love the moon. An ax should not lose weight in his hand. His garden should smell of rotting…

— Czeslaw Milosz