Michal > Michal's Quotes

“I could write a treatise
on the sudden transformation
of life into archaeology”
― Zbigniew Herbert

“Bądź wierny Idź”
― Zbigniew Herbert

“Be courageous when the mind deceives you
Be courageous
In the final account only this is important”
― Zbigniew Herbert

“No time to grieve for roses when the forests are burning.”
― Juliusz Słowacki

“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”
― Zbigniew Herbert, Report from the Besieged City and Other Poems

“Więc dlatego wszyscy przegramy; dlatego, że przechodziliśmy obojętnie obok czegoś, kiedy powinniśmy pozostać; i dobrze, że nam to nie będzie wybaczone.”
― Marek Hłasko, Brudne czyny

“These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness, and worship without awareness.”
― Anthony de Mello

“You see persons and things not as they are but as you are. ”
― Anthony de Mello SJ

“Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness you don't have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already. How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don't you experience it? Because you've got to drop something. You've got to drop illusions. You don't have to add anything in order to be happy; you've got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It's only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!”
― Anthony de Mello, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality

“ماذا أقول على شاطىء
بحر صغير ميت

يطمر الماء ببطء
آثار أقدامٍ تتلاشى”
― Zbigniew Herbert

“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.”
― Zbigniew Herbert, The Collected Prose, 1948-1998