All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
Wislawa SzymborskaRead
After every war someone has to tidy up.
Interpretation
The aftermath of conflict requires effort to restore order and peace.
This quote by Wislawa Szymborska highlights the often-overlooked reality that wars, while fighting for certain ideals, leave behind a significant burden of consequences. It serves as a reminder that the resolution of conflicts is not just about the end of fighting, but also about the long and challenging process of reconstruction and healing that follows, requiring patience and commitment from society.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the responsibilities nations face after conflicts.
All imperfection is easier to tolerate if served up in small doses.
I started earning a living as a poet rather early on.
But they know about us, they know, the four corners, and the chairs nearby us. Discerning shadows also know, and even the table keeps quiet.
I prefer the absurdity of writing poems to the absurdity of not writing poems.
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.
Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
If my devils are to leave me, I'm afraid my angels will take flight as well.
The subway in New York is a great social experiment; there are so many races and ways of life sitting together on each car.
The government was set to protect man from criminals-and the constitution was written to protect man from the government. The Bill of Rights was not directed at private citizens, but against the government-as an explicit declaration that individual rights supersede any public or social power.
Sincerity is the same in a corner alone, as it is before the face of the world. It knows not how to wear two vizards, one for an appearance before men, and another for a short snatch in a corner; but it must have God, and be with him in the duty of prayer. It is not lip-labour that it doth regard, for it is the heart that God looks at, and that which sincerity looks at, and that which prayer comes from, if it be that prayer which is accompanied with sincerity.
When air conditioning, escalators, and advertising appeared, shopping expanded its scale, but also limited its spontaneity. And it became much more predictable, almost scientific. What had once been the most surprising became the most manipulated.
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.
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