Joseph Brodsky Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“A language is a more ancient and inevitable thing than any state.”

“Every individual ought to know at least one poet from cover to cover: if not as a guide through the world, then as a yardstick for the language.”

“The poetic notion of infinity is far greater than that which is sponsored by any creed.”

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

“Who included me among the ranks of the human race?”

“What I like about cities is that everything is king size, the beauty and the ugliness.”

“For the poet the credo or doctrine is not the point of arrival but is, on the contrary, the point of departure for the metaphysical journey.”

“It would be enough for me to have the system of a jury of twelve versus the system of one judge as a basis for preferring the U.S. to the Soviet Union. I would prefer the country you can leave to the country you cannot.”

“For a writer only one form of patriotism exists: his attitude toward language.”

“Bad literature is a form of treason.”