Quotes by Polish Authors

this grimy fragment of another world, the forerunner of change, of conquest, of trade, of massacres, of blessings....the merry dance of death and trade goes on
Joseph Conrad
May be you find out I could be useful getting people out of camps and prisons in Germany - just before they got shot. I should love to do it and I like to jump out of a plane even every day.
Christine Granville
Wherever he went he left footprints so firm that nobody could later efface or blur them, not even he himself, when on rare occasions he was tempted to do so.
Isaac Deutscher
Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretence to make it live.
Joseph Conrad
It was a wonderful experience. She mistrusted his very slumbers--and she seemed to think I could tell her why! Thus a poor mortal seduced by the charm of an apparition might have tried to wring from another ghost the tremendous secret of the claim the other world holds over a disembodied soul astray amongst the passions of this earth. The very ground on which I stood seemed to melt under my feet. And it was so simple too; but if the spirits evoked by our fears and our unrest have ever to vouch for each other's constancy before the forlorn magicians that we are, then I--I alone of us dwellers in the flesh--have shuddered in the hopeless chill of such a task.
Joseph Conrad
Philosophy in its old form could exist only in the absence of engineering, but with engineering in existence and daily more active and far reaching, the old verbalistic philosophy and metaphysics have lost their reason to exist. They were no more able to understand the "production" of the universe and life than they are now able to understand or grapple with "production" as a means to provide a happier existence for humanity. They failed because their venerated method of "speculation" can not produce, and its place must be taken by mathematical thinking. Mathematical reasoning is displacing metaphysical reasoning. Engineering is driving verbalistic philosophy out of existence and humanity gains decidedly thereby. Only a few parasites and "speculators" will mourn the disappearance of their old companion "speculation." The world of producers -the predominating majority of human beings- will welcome a philosophy of ordered thought and production.
Alfred Korzybski
He is romantic—romantic,” he repeated. “And that is very bad—very bad. . . . Very good, too,” he added. “But is he?” I queried.‘“Gewiss,” he said, and stood still holding up the candelabrum, but without looking at me. “Evident! What is it that by inward pain makes him know himself? What is it that for you and me makes him—exist?”‘At that moment it was difficult to believe in Jim’s existence—starting from a country parsonage, blurred by crowds of men as by clouds of dust, silenced by the clashing claims of life and death in a material world—but his imperishable reality came to me with a convincing, with an irresistible force! I saw it vividly, as though in our progress through the lofty silent rooms amongst fleeting gleams of light and the sudden revelations of human figures stealing with flickering flames within unfathomable and pellucid depths, we had approached nearer to absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent still waters of mystery. “Perhaps he is,” I admitted with a slight laugh, whose unexpectedly loud reverberation made me lower my voice directly; “but I am sure you are.” With his head dropping on his breast and the light held high he began to walk again. “Well—I exist, too,” he said.
Joseph Conrad
The world became more aware that America-despite being the hope of many who have the personal drive and ambition to become part of the "American dream"-is beset by serious operational challenges: a massive and growing national debt, widening social inequality, a cornucopian culture that worships materialism, a financial system given to greedy speculation, and a polarized political system
Zbigniew Brzeziński
The ongoing changes in the distribution of global power and mounting global strife make it all the more imperative that America not retreat into an ignorant garrison-state mentality or wallow in self-righteous cultural hedonism
Zbigniew Brzeziński
...it is easy not to believe in monsters, considerably more difficult to escape their dread and loathsome clutches.
Stanisław Lem
I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more - the feeling that I could last forever outlast the sea the earth and all men.
Joseph Conrad
It has been said that writing comes more easily if you have something to say.
Sholem Asch
I believe in hard work. It keeps the wrinkles out of the mind and spirit.
Helena Rubinstein
There are no ugly women only lazy ones.
Helena Rubinstein
Too caustic? To hell with cost we'll make the picture anyhow. Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg. We have all passed a lot of water since then.
Samuel Goldwyn
We are all shot through with enough motives to make a massacre any day of the week that we want to give them their head.
Jacob Bronowski
The sea - the truth must be confessed - has no generosity. No display of manly qualities - courage hardihood endurance faithfulness - has ever been known to touch its irresponsible consciousness of power.
Joseph Conrad
Not the power to remember but its very opposite the power to forget is a necessary condition for our existence.
Sholem Asch
Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory.
Joseph Conrad
The mind of man is capable of anything - because everything is in it all the past as well as all the future.
Joseph Conrad
Why should people pay good money to go out and see bad films when they can stay at home and see bad television for nothing?
Sam Goldwyn
Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.
Artur Rubinstein
Deep faith eliminates fear.
Lech Walesa
To be busy with material affairs is the best preservative against reflection fears doubts.... I suppose a fellow proposing to cut his throat would experience a sort of relief while occupied in stropping his razor carefully.
Joseph Conrad
I'm exhausted from not talking.
Sam Goldwyn
Felicity felicity ... is quaffed out of a golden cup ... the flavour is with you alone and you can make it as intoxicating as you please.
Joseph Conrad
No man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge.
Joseph Conrad
Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.
Rosa Luxemburg
Self-respect is the root of discipline: the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
Abraham J. Heschel
Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg.
Sam Goldwyn
If Roosevelt were alive he'd turn in his grave.
Sam Goldwyn
A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Sam Goldwyn
Include me out.
Sam Goldwyn
I have admired W.C. Fields since the day he advanced upon Baby LeRoy with an ice pick. Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
Leo Rosten
Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
Sam Goldwyn
God dwells where we let God in.
Menachem Mendel
I have found that if you love life life will love you back.
Arthur Rubinstein
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing at whatever cost must be attained.
Marie Curie
How does one kill fear? ... How do you shoot a specter through the heart slash off its spectral head take it by its spectral throat?
Joseph Conrad
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
Joseph Conrad
I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. Everyone has bad breaks but everyone also has opportunities. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.
Samuel Goldwyn
Time is change transformation evolution.
Isaac L. Peretz
The way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie
There is something haunting in the light of the moon it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul and something of its inconceivable mystery.
Joseph Conrad
I am tired before the concert not afterward.
Artur Rubinstein
Every director bites the hand that lays the golden egg.
Sam Goldwyn
If Roosevelt were alive he'd turn in his grave.
Sam Goldwyn
A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.
Sam Goldwyn
Include me out.
Sam Goldwyn
I have admired W.C. Fields since the day he advanced upon Baby LeRoy with an ice pick. Any man who hates dogs and babies can't be all bad.
Leo Rosten
Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined.
Sam Goldwyn
God dwells where we let God in.
Menachem Mendel
I have found that if you love life life will love you back.
Arthur Rubinstein
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing at whatever cost must be attained.
Marie Curie
How does one kill fear? ... How do you shoot a specter through the heart slash off its spectral head take it by its spectral throat?
Joseph Conrad
To have his path made clear for him is the aspiration of every human being in our beclouded and tempestuous existence.
Joseph Conrad
I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. Everyone has bad breaks but everyone also has opportunities. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on.
Samuel Goldwyn
Time is change transformation evolution.
Isaac L. Peretz
The way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
Marie Curie
There is something haunting in the light of the moon it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul and something of its inconceivable mystery.
Joseph Conrad