#la

A scientist's aim in a discussion with his colleagues is not to persuade, but to clarify. ↗

— Leo Szilard

#clarify #colleagues #discussion #his #persuade

If one knows only what one is told, one does not know enough to be able to arrive at a well-balanced decision. ↗

— Leo Szilard

#arrive #decision #does #enough #know

I usually write for the individual reader -though I would like to have many such readers. There are some poets who write for people assembled in big rooms, so they can live through something collectively. I prefer my reader to take my poem and have a one-on-one relationship with it. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#big #collectively #i #individual #like

I've reached the age of self-knowledge, so I don't know anything. People who claim that they know something are responsible for most of the fuss in the world. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#anything #claim #fuss #i #know

In the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone's existence in this world. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#after #anyone #cloud #day #every

Keep up the good work, if only for a while, if only for the twinkling of a tiny galaxy. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#good #good work #keep #only #tiny

Life lasts but a few scratches of the claw in the sand. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#lasts #life #sand #scratches

Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#am #good #i #i am #important

Take it not amiss, O speech, that I borrow weighty words, and later try hard to make them seem light. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#borrow #hard #i #later #light

Though I may deny poets their monopoly on inspiration, I still place them in a select group of Fortune's darlings. ↗

— Wislawa Szymborska

#deny #fortune #group #i #inspiration