Eugenio Montale

“Happiness achieved, one walks for you on a razor's edge.”

“This only can we tell you today, what we are not, what we do not want.”

“Perhaps one morning, walking in an air of glass, turning, I will see the miracle.”

“Often I have met the evil of living: it was the strangled stream that gurgles.”

“I have descended, giving you my arm, at least a million stairs.”

“Do not ask us for the word that squares from every side our shapeless soul.”

“Look for a broken link in the net that holds us.”

“The hope for tomorrow is merely the superstition of today.”

“I have always believed that what we call poetry is a product of our imperfections.”

“The work of art is a lonely beacon.”

“The poet is a man who is surprised by everything.”

“The life that breaks and recomposes is but a shadow.”

“Poetry is not made for anyone, not for others and not even for those who write it.”

“Ah, the man who goes away sure of himself, a friend to others and to himself.”

“Impersonality is the great invention of modern art.”