Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Czeslaw Milosz (Polish-American Poet, Novelist)

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) was a Lithuania-born American poet, novelist, essayist, translator, critic, and diplomat. The winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature survived the German occupation of Warsaw, defected in 1951, and became a respected figure in 20th-century Polish literature. He was one of the most respected poets in the world.

Born in Šeteniai, Lithuania, Russian Empire, now in Lithuania, to Polish parents, Milosz worked for the Resistance in Warsaw during World War II. He eventually became a Slavic language and literature professor at the University of California-Berkeley (1961–78.)

Milosz established a reputation with his first two volumes of poetry, Poemat o czasie zastyglym (1933, ‘Poem on Time Frozen’) and Trzy zimy (1936, ‘Three Winters.’) In 1945, he published Ocalenie (‘Rescue,’) a collection primarily of war poems. After World War II, he collaborated with the Communist authorities, who gave him diplomatic posts in Washington, D.C., and Paris.

Milosz defected in 1951, the year which saw Zniewolony umysl (1951; The Captive Mind, 1953,) which documented the difficulties of intellectuals under Stalin. He spent three decades in exile, first in Paris, then in California, and his works were banned in Poland for many years. Many of his subsequent works were published in English and Polish, including Hymn of the Pearl (1982,) The Unattainable Earth (1986,) Provinces (1991,) A Year of the Hunter (1994,) and Facing the River (1995.)

Milosz’s New and Collected Poems 1931–2001 were published in 2001, and New Poems in 2004. A naturalized U.S. citizen since 1970, he returned to Poland in 1981 and eventually settling in Kraków.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Czeslaw Milosz

Every poet depends upon generations who wrote in his native tongue; he inherits styles and forms elaborated by those who lived before him. At the same time, though, he feels that those old means of expression are not adequate to his own experience.
Czeslaw Milosz

He who invokes history is always secure. The dead will not rise to witness against him.
Czeslaw Milosz
Topics: Life

Grow your tree of falsehood from a small grain of truth. Do not follow those who lie in contempt of reality. Let your lie be even more logical than the truth itself, so the weary travelers may find repose.
Czeslaw Milosz
Topics: Lying, Deception/Lying, Lies

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