Quotes by Brodsky, Joseph

The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality >>

The real history of consciousness starts with one's first lie. >>

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading >>

Quotations about Poetry and Poets

We must believe that emotion recollected in tranquillity is an inexact >>

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night >>

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; >>

If a poet has any obligation toward society, it is to write well. Being in the minority, he has no other choice. Failing this duty, he sinks into oblivion. Society, on the other hand, has no obligation toward the poet. A majority by definition, society thinks of itself as having other options than reading verses, no matter how well written. Its failure to do so results in its sinking to that level of locution at which society falls easy prey to a demagogue or a tyrant. This is society's own equivalent of oblivion.

Brodsky, Joseph