Life-the way it really is-is a battle not between Bad and Good but between Bad and Worse. Joseph Brodsky More Quotes by Joseph Brodsky More Quotes From Joseph Brodsky No matter how daring or cautious you may choose to be, in the course of your life, you are bound to come into direct physical contact with what's known as Evil. I mean here not a property of the gothic novel but, to say the least, a palpable social reality that you in no way can control. Joseph Brodsky you evil life reality For a head of state presiding over a ruined economy, an active army with its low wages is god-sent: All he's got to do is provide it with an objective. Joseph Brodsky low head economy army In order to live in a different country, you have to love something there. You have to love something there. You have to love either the spirit of the laws or the economic opportunities, or the - well, history of the country, the language perhaps, literature. Joseph Brodsky you language love history What makes art in general, and literature in particular, remarkable, what distinguishes them from life, is precisely that they abhor repetition. In everyday life, you can tell the same joke thrice and, thrice getting a laugh, become the life of the party. In art, though, this sort of conduct is called 'cliche.' Joseph Brodsky laugh you life art The imprisoning of a writer is the same as the burning of a book. Joseph Brodsky writer same burning book Prison is, indeed, a translation of your metaphysics, ethics, sense of history and whatnot into the compact terms of your daily deportment. Joseph Brodsky daily ethics prison history
