“After every war
someone has to tidy up.
Things won't pick themselves up, after all.Someone has to shove
the rubble to the roadsides
so the carts loaded with corpses
can get by.”

—  Wisława Szymborska

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 8, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "After every war someone has to tidy up. Things won't pick themselves up, after all.Someone has to shove the rubble t…" by Wisława Szymborska?
Wisława Szymborska photo
Wisława Szymborska92
Polish writer 1923–2012

Related quotes

Meg Cabot photo

“Maybe nobody has a right to tell anybody to shut up. Maybe this is how wars get started, because someone tells someone else to shut up, and then no one will apologize.”

Meg Cabot The Princess Diaries

Source: The Princess Diaries

Charles M. Schulz photo

“A cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing day after day without repeating himself.”

Charles M. Schulz Peanuts

You Don't Look 35, Charlie Brown! (1985) ISBN 0030056241

Terry Pratchett photo

“Them as can do, has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

Variant: Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.
Source: The Wee Free Men

Nora Ephron photo

“Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

“I'll call you," he repeated.
"If you call me, I won't pick up the phone."
"You will wait by the phone for my call, and when it rings, you will pick it up and you will speak to me in a civil manner. If you don't know how, ask someone.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bleeds

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

“Everyone wants someone they can hold and love. Someone who will be there to help pick up the pieces when everything falls apart. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Charles Manson photo

“I see blood in here every day, every day someone's getting shot, someone's getting cut, someone's getting beat ... i've lived in that all my life woman, that don't wrinkle up my forehead ... you can pile 100 dead bodies up in front of my cell and it don't set me to do nothing ...”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

Source: Diane Sawyer interview (ABC, 1993)

Warren Farrell photo

“A man being sued after a woman has more sex than intended is like Lay’s being sued after someone has more potato chips than intended. In brief, date rape can be a crime, a misunderstanding, or buyer’s remorse.”

Warren Farrell book The Myth of Male Power

Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part III: Government as substitute husband, p. 312.

Related topics