Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse
Interpretation
Life is a continual struggle to choose the lesser of two evils.
This quote by Joseph Brodsky suggests that in life, situations are often not merely black and white; instead, we frequently find ourselves in challenging circumstances where the choices we face are between two negative options. It reflects a more realistic take on life’s challenges, highlighting that what we often perceive as 'bad' can be measured against something even worse, suggesting that wisdom lies in recognizing and navigating these complexities.
In practice
During a motivational speech on resilience in difficult times.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
the neighborhood is nothing but a protective zone- remodeling, disinfection, a snobbish and hygenic design- but above all in a figurative sense: it is a machine for making emptiness.
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
But this was what happened when you didn't want to visit and confront the past: the past starts visiting and confronting you.
I agree today that a man has no business trying to tell women what their characteristics are, which ones are inborn, which are more admirable, which will be best utilized by what occupations.
We must be willing to fail and to appreciate the truth that often "Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived.
Alms are an inheritance and a justice which is due to the poor and which Jesus has levied upon us.
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