Zbigniew Herbert

"And if the City falls and one survives he shall carry the City within on the roads of exile he shall be the City"

"And now I won't be on any of them group photo (proud proof of my death in all literary weekly magazines in the world) when someone will say, look, you see - it's Zbyszek - pointing finger at a man struggling with a suitcase - but that's not it I'm someone else who isn't even from this industry there is no me and there is complete emptiness"

"Jeśli tematem sztuki będzie dzbanek rozbity mała rozbita dusza z wielkim żalem nad sobą to co po nas zostanie będzie jak płacz kochanków w małym brudnym hotelu kiedy świtają tapety"

"Go where the others have gone, to the tenebrous limit for the golden fleece of void, your ultimate prize go upright among those who are on their knees among those turning their backs on and those fallen to dust."

"And do not forgive indeed it is beyond your power to forgive in the name of those betrayed at dawn"

"You survived not to live on your time is short, you have to give a proof of truth"

"Go for it is the only way to be accepted to the circle of cold skulls the circle of your forefathers: Gilgamesh Hector Roland defenders of the kingdom of no frontiers and of the city of ashes Be faithful Go"

"I turn to history not for lessons but to confront my experience with the experience of others and to win for myself a sense of responsibility for the state of the human conscience."

"Now that we're alone we can talk prince man to man though you lie on the stairs and see no more than a dead ant."

"Adieu prince I have tasks a sewer project and a decree on prostitutes and beggar I must also elaborate a better system of prisons since as you justly said Denmark is a prison I go to my affairs This night is born a star named Hamlet We shall never meet what I shall leave will not be worth a tragedy It is not for us to greet each other or bid farewell we live on archipelagos and that water these words what can they do what can they do prince."

"The liver is not a gentleman."

"His poems, even in English, seem to me finer than anything currently being written by any English or American poet."