“A man should not love the moon.
An ax should not lose weight in his hand.
His garden should smell of rotting apples
And grow a fair amount of nettles.”
"Should, Should Not" (1961), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz
King Popeil and Other Poems (1962)
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Czeslaw Milosz106
Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator 1911–2004Related quotes
“A man who lived on the banks of the Niger should not wash his hands with spittle.”
Chinua Achebe book No Longer at Ease
Source: No Longer at Ease (1960), Chapter 1 (p. 17)
“A man should build a house with his own hands before he calls himself an engineer.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)
“A man should be mourned at his birth, not at his death.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) French social commentator and political thinker
No. 40. (Usbek writing to Ibben)
Lettres Persanes (Persian Letters, 1721)
“If a mute kid swears, should his mother wash his hands with soap?”
Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
Source: A Nation of Immigrants
Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister
Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage
William Stukeley (1687–1765) English antiquarian
A Hastings White (ed.) Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life (1936) pp. 19-20. (1752)
Relating a conversation with Sir Isaac Newton.
“Why should man be afraid to think, and why should he fear to express his thoughts?”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer
Heretics and Heresies (1874)
Context: Why should man be afraid to think, and why should he fear to express his thoughts?
Is it possible that an infinite Deity is unwilling that a man should investigate the phenomena by which he is surrounded? Is it possible that a god delights in threatening and terrifying men? What glory, what honor and renown a god must win on such a field! The ocean raving at a drop; a star envious of a candle; the sun jealous of a fire-fly.
