Joseph Brodsky

Poet, Essayist

Joseph Brodsky was a Russian-American poet and Nobel laureate, known for his exploration of themes like love, loss, and exile in his works.

Born
February 24, 1940
Died
January 28, 1996
Quotes
109
Rank
#491

About Joseph Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky — Life and Legacy

Joseph Brodsky, a Russian-American poet and Nobel laureate, is celebrated for his profound exploration of human emotions, particularly love and loss. His experiences as an exile deeply influenced his work, shaping his unique perspective on the complexities of life. Brodsky's poetry often reflects a tension between solitude and connection, as seen in his assertion that 'A poet is, before anything else, a person who is not afraid of being alone.' This idea underscores the necessity of solitude in the creative process, revealing how isolation can foster deep introspection and artistic expression. Brodsky's quotes resonate with the struggles of the human condition, as he articulates the paradox of existence. His statement 'We are all the same, but we are all different' captures the essence of shared humanity while acknowledging individual narratives. This duality is a recurring theme in his work, where he navigates the intricacies of love, often portraying it as a 'lonely hunter'—a pursuit filled with longing and solitude. Today, Brodsky's insights remain relevant, offering readers a lens through which to understand their own emotional landscapes. His ability to articulate the nuances of love and loss continues to inspire those seeking to make sense of their experiences in a complex world.

Quote collection

Joseph Brodsky quotes (page 1 of 6)

109 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"Twentieth-century Russian literature has produced nothing special except perhaps one novel and two stories by Andrei Platonov, who ended his days sweeping streets."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"Were we to choose our leaders on the basis of their reading experience and not their political programs, there would be much less grief on earth. I believe ... that for someone who has read a lot of Dickens to shoot his like in the name of an idea is harder than for someone who has read no Dickens."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"A poet is a combination of an instrument and a human being in one person, with the former gradually taking over the latter. The sensation of this takeover is responsible for timbre; the realization of it, for destiny."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"By failing to read or listen to poets, society dooms itself to inferior modes of articulation, those of the politician, the salesman, or the charlatan. In other words, it forfeits its own evolutionary potential. For what distinguishes us from the rest of the animal kingdom is precisely the gift of speech. Poetry is not a form of entertainment and in a certain sense not even a form of art, but it is our anthropological, genetic goal. Our evolutionary, linguistic beacon."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even - if you will - eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned imposter couldn't be happy with."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"I sit in the dark. And it would be hard to figure out which is worse; the dark inside, or the darkness out."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse"

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"The moment that you place blame somewhere, you undermine your resolve to change anything."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"Life is a game with many rules but no referee. One learns how to play it more by watching it than by consulting any book, including the holy book. Small wonder, then, that so many play dirty, that so few win, that so many lose."

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"The eye identifies itself not with the body it belongs to but with the object of its attention."

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Joseph Brodsky Poet, Essayist
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"I had this fantasy of becoming a neurosurgeon. You know, the normal Jewish boy fantasy, but I wanted to be a neurosurgeon for some reason. So I started in this unpleasant way. I was an assistant to the coroner, opening up corpses, taking the innards out, opening skulls, taking the brains out."

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