Zbigniew Herbert Quotes

Zbigniew Herbert delivers solemn, heroic reflections on truth, survival and courage for readers who value deep moral insight.

24 quotes

And if the City falls and one survives he shall carry the City within on the roads of exile he shall be the City

#1
Jesli tematem sztuki bedzie dzbanek rozbity mala rozbita dusza z wielkim zalem nad soba to co po nas zostanie bedzie jak placz kochankow w malym brudnym hotelu kiedy switaja tapety

#2
Go where the others have gone, to the tenebrous limit for the golden fleece of void, your ultimate prize go upright among those who are on their knees among those turning their backs on and those fallen to dust

#3
And do not forgive indeed it is beyond your power to forgive in the name of those betrayed at dawn

#4
You survived not to live on your time is short, you have to give a proof of truth

#5
Go for it is the only way to be accepted to the circle of cold skulls the circle of your forefathers: Gilgamesh Hector Roland defenders of the kingdom of no frontiers and of the city of ashes Be faithful Go

#6
One always goes against the current to reach the wellsprings, it is the trash which flows with the current.

#7
His poems, even in English, seem to me finer than anything currently being written by any English or American poet.

#8
Inanimate objects are always correct and cannot, unfortunately, be reproached with anything. I have never observed a chair shift from one foot to another, or a bed rear on its hind legs. And tables, even when they are tired, will not dare to bend their knees. I suspect that objects do this from pedagogical considerations, to reprove us constantly for our instability.
The dead have need of fairy tales too.
Even if we love someone very much, at times it happens that we forget about it.
Study the world's skin before you set out to look for its heart.
I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience.
“A craftsman must probe to the very bottom of cruelty.”
Be courageous when the mind deceives you Be courageous In the final account only this is important
“when the Lord built the world he furrowed his brow calculated calculated calculated that is why the world is perfect and uninhabitable instead the world of the painter is good and full of mistakes the eye wanders from one color to another one fruit to another the eye mumbles the eye smiles remembers the eye says it is bearable only if one could enter inside there where the painter was without wings in slippers that fall off without Virgil with a cat in the pocket a benevolent fantasy and a hand that unknowingly corrects the world”
I could write a treatise on the sudden transformation of life into archaeology
“Svoje dogodovštine zabavno opisuje engleski crtač Edvard Dodvel. Radio je na Akropolju, koristeći camera obscura - prototip fotografskog aparata koji je davao umanjenu sliku građevina, mada je na crtežu omogućavao očuvanje proporcija reprodukovanih spomenika kulture. 'Jednoga dana, dok sam crtao Partenon svojom camera obscura, vidno uznemireni komandant garnizona upitao me je kakve to čarolije izvodim svojom neobičnom mašinom.' Dodvel pokušava da mu objasni, demonstrirajući rad svoga aparata. Turski oficir je i time preneražen. 'Videći to (...) promenih ton i zapretih mu da ću ga staviti u svoju crnu kutiju ako mi bude smetao i malretirao me.' Od tog vremena Dodvel je neometano radio.”
forgive me also that I didn't fight like Lord Byron for the happiness of captive peoples that I watched only risings of the moon and museums
“You can be a good painter if you study Cézanne's vision. Whoever dares to copy Van Gogh falls inevitably into the hell of imitators. For this painter didn't care about masterpieces, or even good paintings... but about what is beyond all painting, all art.”
I thank You Lord for creating the world beautiful and various and if this is Your seduction I am seduced for good and past all forgiveness
“So is blurred so is blurred in me what white-haired gentleman separated once and for all and said this is the subject this is the object we fall asleep with one hand under our head and with the other in a mound of planets our feet abandon us and taste the earth with their tiny roots which next morning we tear out painfully”
“I do not turn to history to draw from it an easy lesson of hope, but to confront my experience with that of others, to acquire something I might call universal compassion, and also a sense of responsibility, responsibility for the state of my conscience.”
“The carpet is too soft. Also the palm tree in the lobby is unbelievable. For a long time the Maitre looks at our faces, shuffling passports in his hands. "Such dark-ringed eyes, such dark-ringed eyes. I knew a merchant from Smyrna, who also had a false front tooth. Nowadays one has to be terribly careful: informers and scorpions are everywhere." In the elevator we stand facing the mirror, but already at the first jerk we see silvery mildew in the place of our faces.”