Wisława Szymborska: Nothing

Wisława Szymborska was Polish writer. Explore interesting quotes on nothing.
Wisława Szymborska: 184 quotes6 likes

“Nothing's a gift, it's all on loan.
I'm drowning in debts up to my ears.
I'll have to pay for myself
with my self,
give up my life for my life.”

Wisława Szymborska

"Nothing's a Gift"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

“The Three Oddest Words

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.”

Wisława Szymborska

“It turns out I was right.
But nothing has come of it.”

Wisława Szymborska

“I shake my memory.
Maybe something in its branches
that has been asleep for years
will start up with a flutter.No.
Clearly I'm asking too much.
Nothing less than one whole second.”

Wisława Szymborska

"May 16, 1973"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The End and the Beginning (1993)

“There's nothing more debauched than thinking.”

Wisława Szymborska

"An Opinion Concerning the Question of Pornography"
Poems New and Collected (1998), The People on the Bridge (1986)

“"There's nothing new under the sun": that's what you wrote, Ecclesiastes. But you yourself were born new under the sun. And the poem you created is also new under the sun, since no one wrote it down before you. And all your readers are also new under the sun, since those who lived before you couldn't read your poem. And that cypress under which you're sitting hasn't been growing since the dawn of time. It came into being by way of another cypress similar to yours, but not exactly the same.”

Wisława Szymborska

The Poet and the World (1996)