Joseph Brodsky Quotes

The charge frequently leveled against poetry - that it is difficult, obscure, hermetic and whatnot - indicates not the state of poetry but, frankly, the rung of the evolutionary ladder on which society is stuck.

Joseph Brodsky

• Society
• Poetry

• Previous
• Next

Quotes to Explore

• Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

  

  Joanne Rowling
  • Myself
  • Poetry
  • Now And Then

• If you ask an economist what's driven economic growth, it's been major advances in things that mattered - the mechanization of farming, mass manufacturing, things like that. The problem is, our society is not organized around doing that.

  

  Larry Page
  • Society
  • Problem
  • Growth

• A society of 'children first' is a society that nurtures smiling faces in everyone.

  

  Yoshihiko Noda
  • Children
  • Society
  • Smiling

• I want to prove that if you write in strict meter and rhyme about subjects people care about, they will buy poetry.

  

  Felix Dennis
  • People
  • Care
  • Poetry

• Artists are political in the sense that they've subtracted themselves from the structure of the marketplace and are contributing something that's not utilitarian. Even though books get sold, and I get advances, I get to look at society and think for a living.

  

  Rachel Kushner
  • Think
  • Society
  • Political

• What 'Deadwood' did was to talk about how capitalism started, how civilised society came in, and how that brought its own problems.

  

  Ian McShane
  • Society
  • Talk
  • Capitalism

• I think the ideology of the Congress is closest to mine. Congress is a party where I should be. I have joined politics to bring change in society. The Congress gave me a chance with the Aadhaar project. It's a party that will allow me to bring change.

  

  Nandan Nilekani
  • Society
  • Change
  • Party

• As governor, I will always be willing to work with people who have ideas to offer and are ready to roll up their sleeves. That kind of teamwork will build a New Hampshire that will lead the nation and compete with the world. Together, we will help our businesses grow and build a stronger economy on a vision of innovation and growth.

  

  Maggie Hassan
  • People
  • Up
  • World

• When we came to Iraq, we didn't understand the complexity - what it meant for a society to live under a brutal dictatorship with ethnic and sectarian divisions. When we first got here, we made a lot of mistakes. We were like a blind man, trying to do the right thing but breaking a lot of things.

  

  H. R. McMaster
  • Live
  • Trying
  • Man

• Modern society has evolved to the point where we counter the old-fashioned fatalism surrounding the word 'cancer' by embracing the idea of the Uber-mind - that our will possesses nearly supernatural powers.

  

  Abraham Verghese
  • Mind
  • Society
  • Cancer

• Do-gooders are easily overlooked. We're supposed to be soft, touchy-feely types, who wear Birkenstocks, compost everything, and write poetry by candlelight.

  

  Nancy Lublin
  • Poetry
  • Everything
  • Soft

• Terror will crash down on us if we fail to understand that a pluralistic society requires the personal and daily commitment of every citizen.

  

  Tariq Ramadan
  • Society
  • Daily
  • Commitment

• I was a science fiction geek. That lets you know that they come in all sizes and styles, right?

  

  Mae Jemison
  • Science
  • You
  • Know

• Infant mortality and life expectancy are reasonable indicators of general well-being in a society.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Life
  • Society
  • Wellbeing

• War is society's dirty work, usually done by kids cleaning up failures perpetrated by adults.

  

  Karl Marlantes
  • Up
  • Work
  • Done

• In a consumer society, people wallow in things, fascinating, enjoyable things. If you define your value by the things you acquire and surround yourself with, being excluded is humiliating.

  

  Zygmunt Bauman
  • People
  • Society
  • Value

• Divorced from the cosmos, from nature, from society and from each other, we have become fractured and fragmented.

  

  Daisaku Ikeda
  • Nature
  • Society
  • Become

• Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.

  

  T. S. Eliot
  • Poetry
  • Communicate
  • Genuine

• If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about.

  

  Paul Graham
  • Words
  • Understand
  • Thrashing

• What we want to do is reform the welfare system in the way that Tony Blair talked about 13 years ago but never achieved - a system that was created for the days after the Second World War. That prize is now I think achievable.

  

  Iain Duncan Smith
  • World
  • War
  • Think

• I'm carrying an iPhone 5. I like this device. It's been impressive. I have a Windows and an Android device... I carry an iPad. I carry a Kindle... Yeah, I have a lot of devices.

  

  Randall L. Stephenson
  • Carry
  • Windows
  • iPhone

• The general manager is kind of like the step into darkness when you reach the top of the league. As GM, you're responsible for everything, including the maitre d's and the sommeliers - all these people who have their own agendas. But you probably make less than the maitre d' and have a lot more work and a lot more headaches.

  

  Joe Bastianich
  • People
  • Work

• Bollywood is not a stepping stone to the West. I am extremely picky and in no hurry to sign a Hollywood film. I am only greedy for great roles; language and country is no barrier. And yes, I'll always be a Hindi film star first.

  

  Priyanka Chopra
  • Great
  • Country
  • Star

• The charge frequently leveled against poetry - that it is difficult, obscure, hermetic and whatnot - indicates not the state of poetry but, frankly, the rung of the evolutionary ladder on which society is stuck.

  

  Joseph Brodsky
  • Society
  • Poetry