"It is only our exactions of life that are terrible. It is only our impossible conceptions of beauty and good and justice that are terrible--because they never are realized, and at the same time they prevent us taking life as it is. That is the real source of all our sorrow and suffering."
Here's a link to some memorable quotations from yet another Polish Nobel Laureate, Wladyslaw Stanislaw Reymont... When I find myself in countries I don't know much about, I generally make inroads into understanding the culture I'm in by canvassing the local literary greats... In my experience, literature and local history offer the most trustworthy guides to understanding any given place, but the history of this country is so complex that I can't even begin to wrap my head around it. You could fill several hefty volumes with just 20th century happenings in Poland...
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